Sunday 2 January was another fine day with large numbers of beachgoers enjoying the Northern Region beaches.

Lifeguards recorded 18 rescues and 16 assists. The rescues were at:

• Sunset Beach where a swimmer was pulled from the water unwell having swallowed a lot of seawater and transported to hospital via Westpac Rescue Helicopter; lifeguards also rescued two young girls aged 10 and 12 from a strong current on the North side of the flags.
• Karekare where two people were retrieved from a rip in front of the club and two from rocks; one of the patients was transported to hospital by ambulance, while the remaining three didn’t require any further treatment. A 50-year-old male was also rescued after patrol hours.
• Raglan – In separate incidents lifeguards rescued two females, then one male and one female.
• Ruakaka - where a female swimmer got into difficulty, 50m south of the flags.
• Muriwai – where guards rescued two people, the first a 51-year-old male boogie-boarding who was taken offshore by the rip and the wind and couldn’t get back to shore unassisted, the second a 29-year-old male who got stuck in a hole while surfing and was helped to shore by an IRB team
• Bethells - a 21-year-old male who had been swept into a hole in front of the tower with another individual - one was able to self-rescue, the other was rescued by a lifeguard who performed a tube rescue.
• Kariaotahi – guards rescued three people, a 12-year-old female, a 17-year-old male and an 11-year-old male who got into difficulty as lifeguards were packing up the flags. An IRB responded and picked up all three patients, they were assessed as being in a stable condition on return to shore and left the beach on their own.

In other incidents a missing 14-year-old male was located at Takapuna, while lifeguards at Omaha assisted a man with a torpedo kon-tiki that was stuck, eventually retrieving it.

Statistics – Sunday 2 January 2022

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