An open-sided four wheel drive vehicle (ATV) was left half submerged in the Hāwea River on Thursday (January 23) after its driver attempted to cross the river.

Police received a call at 12.20pm to say a man was stuck on the top of an ATV in the Hāwea River, at the mouth to the Clutha/Mata-Au River.

“Police arranged for a jet boat to rescue the man, however he jumped off the ATV and swam to shore before the jet boat arrived,” a police spokesperson said.

“The jet boat operator tied the ATV to a tree to stop it floating away.”

Witnesses Rhian Telfer and Luka Cowan (both 16) arrived on the scene soon after the man entered the river.

“When we got there he was obviously distressed, yelling out for a rope and saying ‘help, help, go across the swing bridge’,” Rhian told the Wānaka App.

The pair biked across the Hāwea swing bridge and towards the river for about 20 minutes until they reached the man, who had just reached the shore.

By then there were two police officers on the opposite shore of the Clutha/Mata-Au River, and Luka went across to them in the jet boat to explain what had happened while Rhian remained with the man, whom she estimated to be in his mid-60s.

“I stayed with the guy who was starting to walk to the swing bridge. He was starting to insist he didn’t want any help,” she said, adding the man was “obviously very weak and cold” and in a state of shock.

Rhian gave him some food and walked with him towards the swing bridge where police were then waiting.

“He told me he lived in a bus; he didn’t have a driver’s licence and so he [used] the buggy,” she said.

“The police told me he was known to them.”

Rhian said it was unclear why the man had tried to cross the river, but he told her he had done it before.

The police spokesperson said it was the owner's responsibility to recover the ATV.

PHOTO: Rhian Telfer