Two of Wanaka’s best search and rescue specialists were rewarded recently for their significant contribution by New Zealand Search and Rescue (SAR). Gary Dickson received a plaque recognising his vast experience in mountain rescues and Roy Bailey earned a Merit Award as a river rescue expert with more than 10 years experience for LandSAR.

Both men are long-serving members of NZ SAR and are both well-known and highly-respected rescue specialists in their own fields, Wanaka SAR chair Bill Day said.

"These guys are the ultimate Kiwi good bastards who get out of bed on a stormy night to go looking for perfect strangers,” he said. "They’re heroes.”

Bill said like many volunteers involved in emergency services, they earn a living by the hour, but are willing to walk off the job, often risking their lives in treacherous conditions, to save someone in trouble.

He said both Gary and Roy have developed skills and a level of expertise equivalent to a PhD, and their experience and knowledge has been integral in the development of New Zealand’s fledgling search and rescue organisation into the sophisticated institution it has become.

Alpinism & Ski Wanaka Ltd’s director and principal guide Gary has had a long career in mountain guiding and instruction operating in both New Zealand and Switzerland. With his vast experience in the mountains he has held technical advisory roles for mountain safety in Iceland and in NZ, where he has been heavily involved with the Mountain Safety Council and the NZ Mountain Guides Association.

Gary started with SAR in Canterbury assisting with technical mountain rescues in Christchurch and Mount Cook during the 1980s, rescuing hikers from alpine passes and climbers out of crevasses. He was also involved in recovering victims from an aircraft crash in the mountains.

He moved to Wanaka in 1999 and became the team coordinator for the Alpine Cliff Rescue Team in Wanaka, a role he held for 10 years. Gary has also been a Tai Poutini Polytechnic rope rescue instructor (2013-2014) and is the Wanaka SAR communications expert: maintaining equipment, conducting training sessions, and advising on the set-up of communications in the challenging local mountainous terrain. He remains an active team leader of the Alpine Cliff Rescue Team in Wanaka SAR.

Roy Bailey, of Bailey Builders, is a river rescue specialist and has been integral to the development of the river rescue team both in the Wanaka region and at a national level. After being called in to help on an operation to find an Australian hunter who drowned in the West Matukituki River, Roy formed the concept of a specialist River Rescue/Swift Water team.

He is now a River Rescue expert for LandSAR, writing the competency framework for River SAR in NZ in 2015/2016, and has presented papers at national LandSAR conferences. Additionally, Roy is a national representative on the Back Country Technical Rescue Advisory Group.

Locally, Roy has been a valued member of Wanaka SAR for the past 11 years. He played a key role in managing the building of the new Wanaka SAR premises and is still an active and experienced team leader of Wanaka’s River Rescue and Sub Alpine teams.

Roy said he was "pretty stoked” to receive the award. "SAR has been a fairly large part of my life for the last 10 years and to get recognition for that is quite nice, especially at a national level.”

"The key point of why I enjoy SAR is because we don’t do it for ourselves, or even people we know. Mostly the people we search for are complete strangers to us,” he said.

PHOTO: Supplied