A busy day for Wānaka LandSAR (Search and Rescue) on Wednesday (January 3) was a sign of the Upper Clutha’s growing community and the number of people out recreating, rather than people being foolish, Wānaka LandSAR chairman Bill Day told the Wānaka App.

The morning began with a call from a climber on the North West Ridge of Mt Aspiring who had broken fingers and a head injury. 

Luckily the man had a personal locator beacon (PLB) which notified SAR of his exact location, Bill said.

While it wasn’t “a major”, the man was up high on the mountain and required a helicopter evacuation, he added.

“Later in the day we got a call to a kid stuck in the rapids in the Rumbling Burn stream on the other side of Mou Waho,” Bill said.

“That got our attention.”

The call sparked memories of the SAR effort to free Dunedin boy Dion Latta from the Motatapu Gorge on New Year’s Day 2012. Dion was freed after three hours under a waterfall but died later in hospital.

On Wednesday LandSAR mobilised quickly, as did the Wānaka Coastguard and the Otago rescue helicopter, and all were relieved when news came that people with the boy had extracted him.

Bill said LandSAR did not have full information on how the boy got stuck, but said general advice was to be careful about river crossings. 

At the same time LandSAR received a third call from someone who had broken their ankle on the Roys Peak Track. They were extracted by air ambulance.

“We had a reasonably busy day,” Bill said.

“There’s lots of people out there recreating, particularly in our area. A lot of people have moved here and we’re busy.”

None of the calls were about people being “idiots”, he added. “They were people who needed help.”

Wānaka LandSAR is one of the busiest SAR operations in the country.

LandSAR volunteers are those locals “putting down tools, saying goodby to their families, and running out the door”, Bill said.

It is entirely volunteer-run and members leave work and busy lives for call-outs. People can donate to the organisation here.