An eagle-eyed tourist who spotted three people marooned on an island off Tauranga Bay on Saturday saved them a cold and uncomfortable night in the open, say police.
The Asian trio, a man and two women in their 20s, walked to the island - a couple of hundred metres from shore - at low tide on Saturday afternoon, said search and rescue co-ordinator Sergeant Sean Judd. When they tried to return they were trapped by the rising tide.
Dressed in swimming togs, they had no cellphones to call for help. The only sign they had disappeared was their pup tent left on the beach.
Mr Judd said a tourist walking at Tauranga Bay spotted them waving for help about 6.30pm.
"They were very hard to see because of the setting sun silhouetting the island."
Police were called and summoned the Buller Surf Rescue group, Mr Judd said. While the volunteer group was trying to rustle up a crew, two instructors from a local surfing school paddled their surf boards to the island, to reassure the trio.
The surfies tried to ferry the trio back on their boards, but decided it was too dangerous, he said.
Police had just called the Greymouth-based NZRCC Rescue Helicopter, which was in Christchurch at the time, when the surf rescue group turned up with an inflatable rescue boat.
They had the tourists safely back on the beach about 7.30pm, Mr Judd said. A waiting ambulance crew checked them out. They were very cold, but otherwise unharmed.
They were lucky the weather was mild and someone saw them waving for help, he said.
"If it wasn't for some reasonably sharp-eyed visitors they could have had a night out on the rock, which would have been very unpleasant."
