River rescue a challenge for emergency services

THE rescue of a paddleboarder, who had to be revived after her ankle leash wrapped around a buoy on the Clutha River on Wednesday afternoon, was a difficult task for emergency service crews, Wanaka Volunteer Fire Brigade Deputy Chief Fire Officer Tony Wellman said.

Police, fire and St John crew members were called to Hikuwai Dr to tend to the 45yearold female paddleboarder, who Mr Wellman believed was a local from Albert Town.

However, with no vehicle access to the scene, crew members had to take alternative modes of transport to get to the incident, located about 2km upstream, about 4pm.

A walking track and the river itself were the only accessible routes for rescue crews, so they had to use any means necessary to get to the scene as quickly as possible, Mr Wellman said.

‘‘One of the St Johns crew was taken up the river by jet ski, and another one commandeered a pushbike and biked to the scene.’’

Meanwhile, firefighters had to run the 2km down the track carrying a stretcher, scramble down a steep bank to retrieve the woman, and carry her another 1km to the Outlet campground, where a helicopter waited to take her to Dunedin Hospital, he said.

Mr Wellman said emergency crews had been called to the area several times in the past few years.

‘‘We’ve already been scheming ideas about how we could make that trip easier.’’

He thought the possibility of carrying the stretcher on a trolley could be an avenue worth exploring.

Queenstown Lakes harbourmaster Marty Black said the woman had been one of a group of about 25 to 30 paddleboarding down the river, and her ankle leash got wrapped around a 5 knot buoy, dragging her under the water.

She was unable to free herself and had to be cut free by commercial operator Chris Thornton, of Paddle Wanaka, who had been following the group down the river on a jet ski.

Mr Black said it had not been a commercial operation, but a ‘‘bit of a friendly deal’’.

‘‘The gear was loaned, it wasn’t a commercial trip, they weren’t guiding them or anything. They were just some friends.’’

‘‘It’s interesting, during the summer we’ve had thousands of people go down the river, literally, and not many reported issues that I’m aware of. Then here’s an organised group that goes down, and they had all the backups in place, and it goes wrong.’’