Summary – Saturday 1 January 2022

It’s been a reasonably busy day to start the year with extraordinarily high headcounts at nearly all of our beaches and a steady flow of incidents all day.

At 1104 this morning, Orewa kicked of the day by reporting to SurfCom that they had two cars parking illegally on the beach near the ski lanes. SurfCom attempted to report the incident at the time but had no answer to the phone call. Orewa updated their situation at 1430 and reported that there were now six parked on the beach in the area. Again, SurfCom tried to report the incident but had no luck. This is likely due to both Auckland Council and the Police non-emergency (105) line working skeleton shifts and being inundated with reports. Finally the situation was reported to the Police later in the afternoon while SurfCom was reporting another unrelated incident.

At 1116, before patrols had started at Long Bay and shortly after Mairangi Bay had started, Coastguard advised SurfCom of a dinghy that had capsized at the north end of Long Bay beach and there were consequently two people in the water. There were no IRB drivers at Mairangi Bay meaning the closest response for SLSNR was the RWC North Shore based out of the Marine Rescue Centre. RWC North Shore responded alongside Police launch Deodar, but arriving on scene they found nothing that fitted the description. Further updates from the informant led to a change in the target as it was actually an inflatable swan that had been drifting out, heading north of Long Bay towards Arkles Bay and there may have one person on it. The RWC completed a shoreline search up to Gulf Harbour, while Police and the Park Rangers at Long Bay searched along the beach. The search efforts found no inflatables and no people on the beach who had lost an inflatable or been looking for a missing person so the search was called off shortly before 1244.

After spending the day helping out the lifeguards on the North Shore beaches who were swarmed with high numbers (Long Bay reported a peak headcount of 5000 which did not include the people in the park), RWC North Shore performed an assist while returning home to the Marine Rescue Centre. Approximately 300m offshore at Narrow Neck Beach, a kayaker had fallen out. The RWC towed the craft and the man back to shore, but he did not require any further assistance. The RWC Operator today expressed that he was sure the Kayaker would not have been okay had he not been wearing a lifejacket as his swimming ability was negligible.

Wenderholm searched for two children today, both of whom were thankfully found safe and well. The first was a seven-year-old girl who was found near the estuary end of the park. The second was a 10-year-old male who hadn’t been seen in 10 minutes. He was last seen at the southern end of the park but was found walking out of the estuary at the north end of the park.

The lifeguards at United North Piha reported being concerned about a person riding a white dirt bike recklessly on the beach. He was being a nuisance to other beach-users and was also not wearing a helmet. The Police were notified but were unable to respond because of a high level of activity.

Far North Surf Rescue rescued one kayaker who got caught in the offshore wind and struggled to make any headway in returning to shore. Two lifeguards responded in an IRB to rescue the kayaker who was approximately 1km offshore by the time they reached her and they returned her to shore safe and well. The Far North team also assisted a kite-surfer today who was 3.5km offshore around the point near ‘Peaks’. Because the surfer was a significant distance from shore, the lifeguards launched an IRB to check on him; but he was okay when they reached him and did not require any assistance. Lifeguards continued to watch and monitor him until he was closer to shore.

This evening at 5pm, Coastguard advised SurfCom of an inflatable with two people on board 3km north of the Pakiri River mouth. The pair appeared to be trying to paddle but were not making any progress so the lifeguards at Pakiri launched an IRB to help the two, the IRB returned both people and their inflatable safely back to shore.

Kariaotahi lifeguards contacted SurfCom to advise that a brawl had broken out approximately 20m behind their flags. The fight involved 10-12 large males which was obviously intimidating for the all-female patrol. Police were contacted and asked to respond; however, by the time Police finally arrived nearly two hours later, all people who had been involved in the incident had left the beach.

Muriwai performed first aid on a seven-year-old boy who had been stung by a bluebottle. Orewa had a man burn the sole of his foot after stepping on a hot rock so performed first-aid on him. The remainder of the minor first-aids recorded today were done by Far North, Waipu Cove, Red Beach, Takapuna, Piha and Raglan.

Summary – Saturday 1 January 2022

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