Hundreds of LandSAR helpers in city conference
Hundreds of national LandSAR volunteers have converged on New Plymouth for the organisation’s conference and AGM this weekend.
The group’s members offer their specialist search and rescue skills free to the public 24 hours a day, seven days a week via the New Zealand Police and the Rescue Coordination Centre.
In 2014/15 they donated nearly 20,000 hours to rescue operations and spent over 76,000 hours training for rescue operations.
Nationally LandSAR has 3,500 trained search and rescue volunteers who are members of 61 local groups covering the length and breadth of the country.
The organisation also has 18 specialist teams including search dogs, caving, alpine cliff rescue and swift water rescue who operate locally when there is a requirement for their skills.
Taranaki ultra-distance runner Megan Stewart, who has been with the organisation for the last 10 years, said her involvement had taught her some valuable life skills.
‘‘It was probably to do with my outdoor lifestyle but I linked it in with my role with St John Ambulance,’’ she said.
‘‘We go out there and find people, hopefully alive, and treat them and return them safely to their families.’’
Stewart, who has completed ultra-marathons across four of the world’s great deserts, said the skills had helped keep her safe and enabled her to help others including a man who had collapsed while she was running across the Sahara. ‘‘We saved his life. ‘‘It’s all about using those skills to stop and think about what am I going to do next.’’
She was looking forward to taking part in workshops and learning new skills and ideas from others at the conference.
‘‘There’s a lot of people here with a lot of experience who are sharing it on a national basis which is going to be great.’’
LandSAR New Zealand chairman Rex Hendry, of Egmont Village, said the organisation had come a long way since its incep- tion in 1934. ’’In the 1970s when someone was lost we were basically pulling together teams of back country people to search for them.’’
Hendry, who was involved for searching for bodies after the 1979 Mt Erebus plane crash, said the organisation now offered comprehensive structured training to its members.
‘‘They gain exceptional skills which are developed over the years. They can go from no experience to being very experienced.’’
He said nationally LandSAR volunteers were involved on average in eight or nine callouts each week, often in extreme conditions and environments, and this was expected to rise.
‘‘More and more people are using the outdoors but they have A solo mum’s rags to stitches story is entering a new chapter.
Lee Mancer, owner of Le-StitchIt clothing alterations and laundrette on Devon St East, New Plymouth, is selling up after nine years in business.
Her plans are to open a new alterations store in Tauranga to be closer to her father, something she said comes down to her ability to make a risky decision and see it through to the end.
‘‘Selling up is a massive risk but I’m definitely confident enough now to start up my business somewhere else.’’
Mancer first shared her story with the Taranaki Daily News four less skills and are becoming too reliant on technology. ‘‘It’s a tool but it’s not the tool.’’ Mike Hutson, of Taranaki, said up until a year ago members had to provide their own gear, but thanks to a grant from the TSB Community Trust some was now provided. He hoped raising the organisation’s profile in Taranaki would attract further funding.
‘‘There’s always new stuff and that needs money.’’
The trio all agreed the job has its positive side.
‘‘There is nothing better than to find a good clue after you’ve been searching for hours.’’ Stewart said.
Hutson said he once received a kiss from a Frenchwoman who had been located by the sound of her flute playing.
‘‘That was a great reward.’’ years ago, when the business she started in the garage of her rental property began to boom and she rented her first ever shop space.
The now 52-year-old had moved from Auckland with her two young girls. Her sister was in New Plymouth and she knew it would be better for the kids, Mancer said
At the time she was on unemployment benefit and, having left school at 14 years old, didn’t have any qualifications - but she did know how to sew.
‘‘When I was growing up I left school at 14-and-a-half but there were factories everywhere, that’s where you learnt [to sew].’’
So one day she put out a sign. A teenage driver told police she ‘‘just didn’t see’’ the cyclist she seriously injured on a Taranaki road.
Mother-of-six Jo ThompsonGarrett was sent flying when 19-year-old Courtney Louise O’Connor ploughed into her at about 8am on May 10.
The victim, who was dressed in full-length fluorescent yellow wet weather clothing, was left with broken bones in her lower right leg that required surgery to fix.
Thompson-Garrett, who is a teacher, was hospitalised for six weeks and required another 18 months of rehabilitation.
O’Connor pleaded guilty to careless driving causing injury when she appeared in the New Plymouth District Court on Thursday.
Detective Sergeant Dave MacKenzie said O’Connor had been driving west on Devon Rd near Waitara.
At the time the teen was following a large truck and trailer along State Highway 3 as she passed the Nelson St intersection.
Thompson-Garrett, of Waitara, was riding her bike in the same direction.
‘‘The victim was riding just to the right of the fog line as the road did not allow her to get any further to the left,’’ MacKenzie said.
O’Connor failed to see Thompson-Garrett and drove straight into her.
‘‘In explanation the defendant said, ‘I just didn’t see the person on the bike’,’’ MacKenzie told the court.
Judge Garry Barkle remanded the case until September 20 to allow for a restorative justice meeting to take place.
Thompson-Garrett told Stuff earlier this month that despite her injuries, she was not angry at O’Connor for what happened.
The route was one she took on a And after four years operating out of her garage, Mancer moved into her first rented shop front - next Monday will mark her two-year anniversary in her current premises on Devon St East, where she also added a laundry service.
Her daughters are now 17 and 18 and with her youngest heading off to university next year, the timing felt right to move on, Mancer said.
Mancer attributed her business’ success to the friendly relationship she had built with her customers along the way.
‘‘The customers that have come to me over the years, they keep coming back.’’ regular basis before the accident, as she used to cycle the 15 kilometres into work at New Plymouth Girls’ High School four days a week.
However, in the aftermath of the crash, Thompson-Garrett said she was still anxious about her own safety and that of other cyclists on the road.
‘‘When I see cyclists out there I’m going ‘be careful’.’’
The memory of how close she had come to being killed also remained strong for her.
’’All I remember is flying, flying through the air and the whack, and then lying on the ground and thinking ‘oh my god, please don’t run my head over’.’’
Nowadays there are fewer people who have kept up with the craft, but Mancer is hopeful there is someone in Taranaki who would see buying the business as an opportunity.
While the New Plymouth store would remain Le-Stitch-It, she would also take the name with her to Tauranga, Mancer said.
Her business had continued to grow over the years and her real estate broker said the net profit she was bringing in was better than a lot of bakeries and takeaway shops of similar sizes.
She will continue to operate the store until a new buyer is found, she said.
Eight Taranaki people were among more than 20 arrested in raids targeting home burglary suspects across Taranaki, Manawatu, Horowhenua and Whanganui. Police executed 16 search warrants at 16 properties across the Central District policing area on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, July 26 to 28. Two were in Hawera, one in Eltham and one in New Plymouth. They were charged with various offences including burglary, theft, breach of bail and possession of cannabis for supply. Twenty-three people were arrested in total. The operation held burglars ‘‘to account’’, and recovered ‘‘a substantial amount’’ of household property, police said in a written statement. The haul included furniture and electronics. ‘‘Dwelling burglaries have a harmful impact on communities, they’re invasive, and can make people feel vulnerable,’’ police said. Items that could be identified would be returned to their owners. However, victims were more likely to be able to recover stolen property if they used the SNAP website to record identifying serial numbers, which could be used to make a sure match, the statement said. ‘‘Officers would like to thank local communities for providing vital information which helped lead to the searches.’’ Information on crime could be passed on anonymously through Crimestoppers, or by calling 0800 555 111.
Police said fatigue played a part in a head-on crash in Bell Block on Friday. A middle-aged man was taken to hospital to be checked over after he crashed into a car while turning from Connett Rd onto Henwood Rd about 12:10pm. Senior Constable Vaughan Smith said the man had recently returned from overseas and was tired from the long flight. ‘‘It’s a large factor in what we’re considering,’’ he said. Police were investigating the crash, which blocked one lane for a short period of time.