A Tauranga mother has a text from a friend to thank for saving her life after a man high on methamphetamine broke into her house and threatened to kill her.

The Welcome Bay woman, who doesn't want to be identified, feared for her own life as well as that of her two-year-old daughter, when the man broke into their home at around 10pm on Saturday night.

A Welcome Bay mother is thankful to be alive after a man broke into her home and threatened to kill her on Saturday night. Photo: File.

'I was lying in bed and I got a text from a friend,” she explains, 'so I woke up, sat up in bed and had my cell phone in my hand. It was about 9.55pm.

'I then heard glass smashing, and at first I thought it was cats fighting outside my window and banging up against the glass.

'I went out into my lounge and saw there were holes in the window panel next to our door and pebbles from the garden through in the lounge. I could hear someone outside trying to smash the glass.”

The woman flicked on the lights and started yelling at them to go away. She admits she initially thought it might have been more than one person because it was so loud.

'I had my phone in my hand, so I automatically called 111 and ran straight into my daughter's bedroom. I was talking to the 111 operator and telling her she needed to get someone here quickly.”

The intruder managed to smash the window in the spare room and climb in – directly opposite her two-year-old daughter's room, where she had barricaded herself in.

'The 111 operator told me I had to put something up against the door, but I couldn't really find anything, so I was pushing myself up against the door.

'He tried to get in the room and said ‘I'm with the Illuminati, I've been sent here to kill you, I'm going to kill you'.

'He just kept trying to open the door and I was yelling at him to go away. My daughter was just screaming. She kept putting her head under the blankets, screaming.”

The intruder went away but quickly returned, attempting to open the door again, all the while threatening to kill the woman.

'I somehow managed to pull my daughter's bed across the door, so he couldn't get in. Then it went quiet.”

'The police arrived and, from what I have been told, it took two taser shots to get him to stop.

'He was bleeding profusely because there was blood all through our house. He must have cut himself on the double glazing window when he climbed through the spare room window.

'There was blood, glass and stones everywhere.

'I thought I was going to die. I just wanted to make sure my daughter was okay. I felt like I was in a movie. I kept asking the 111 operator if it was real.”

Even when police officers arrived at the house, the woman admits she was reluctant to open the door to them.

'They said it was the police and I was like ‘nah, I'm not opening the door'.”

Two days later, every time she closes her eyes, the woman suffers flashbacks relating to the incident.

'I'm more worried about my daughter,” she says. 'Even though she is only two, she's smart and she knows what's going on. She keeps asking where the bad man is that smashed all the windows.

'She's crying a lot at things that wouldn't normally make her cry, like putting her pyjamas on because she knows she has to go to bed. It's going to take a lot of time for things to get back to normal.”

Police told her that the man was on methamphetamine and had to be taken to the hospital for surgery.

As he used to live next door, she hopes he will not be allowed back to the property.

'I think he may have had mental health issues as well,” admits the woman.

The incident has, however, brought her closer to her neighbours. 'Before this, we didn't really know each other. Now, my neighbours are offering to come and sit with me if I don't want to be alone.

'It's one of the good things to come out of the situation – it has brought everyone together.”

The woman also wants to thank the 111 operator who she spoke with during the ordeal.

'If I had got someone different, the situation may have turned out differently. She was amazing.

'Someone was looking out for me that night. If I hadn't got that text from my friend and stayed asleep, who knows what would have happened.”