Weekly Wrap: Monday 5 to Sunday 11 January 2026

Surf lifeguards around Aotearoa worked a collective 21,585 hours between Monday 5 and Sunday 11 January, as hot weather and peak summer conditions drove very high beach attendance across the country.

Across the week, lifeguards performed 61 rescues, assisted 145 people, carried out 17 searches, and completed 6,062 preventative actions. Peak headcounts exceeded 76,000 people nationally, with Saturday and Sunday recording the highest beach attendance of the week.

The week included a sustained level of rescues and serious medical responses across all regions, and Surf Life Saving would like all beachgoers to keep safety in mind when heading to the beach.

Surf lifeguards are at 92 beaches around the country every day over summer, and the red and yellow flags are closely monitored to show the safest swimming spots. You can check SafeSwim to see where and when beaches are being patrolled, alongside beach hazards, safety warnings, conditions, and tides.

People choosing to swim at unpatrolled beach locations must know their own abilities and limits, and get familiar with our five Beach Safety Messages: 1 – know how to float, 2 – find the safest place to swim, 3 – if in doubt, stay out, 4 – take care of others, 5 – know how to get help.

Knowledge about rips is also essential. Rips are channels of water pulling away from the shore and can look deceptively smooth on the surface, they tend to be darker and deeper, but they can be very hard to spot. If you are caught in a rip, follow the 3 Rs: Relax, Ride, Raise. Relax and float to conserve energy, Raise your hand to signal for help, and Ride the rip until it stops or you can swim parallel to the shore to escape, never try to swim directly against it.

Activity this week included:

On Tuesday 6 January, lifeguards responded to a rescue at Tairua where three people were assisted from the water, with one transported to hospital by helicopter. An after-hours rescue was also completed at Raglan, where a lifeguard launched an IRB (inflatable rescue boat) to retrieve a person caught in a rip after patrols had finished.

At Piha on Friday 9 January at 8.30pm, after patrols were closed, a young woman in distress in the water near Lion Rock was rescued by members of the public, and the Piha SAR (search and rescue) team arrived to provide care alongside ambulance services.

Lifeguards at Karekare on Auckland’s west coast carried out a complex rock extraction involving three people stranded at Farley Point on Saturday morning. Two people were recovered by lifeguards using RWCs (rescue watercraft), while a third person with a broken leg was extracted by helicopter and transported to hospital.

Lifeguards responded to numerous serious medical incidents throughout the week, including cardiac events, seizure, and broken bones. On Sunday 11 January, lifeguards at Waipatiki were involved in the successful resuscitation of an elderly man on the beach, working alongside off-duty medical professionals until ambulance crews arrived and transported the patient to hospital.

The weekend saw exceptionally high visitor numbers, particularly in the Northern and Eastern regions, with multiple beaches reporting several thousand people. Despite the crowds, many beaches recorded no incidents, highlighting the importance of preventative lifeguarding and early interventions to keep people safe.

Aggregated patrol statistics 5-11 Jan 2026:

Note:

Surf Life Saving New Zealand regions: 

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