Instead, 40 Kiwi canyoning experts enjoyed three days of canyoning activities around Makarora and Haast Pass, including a full day’s deployment on a fictional search and rescue scenario.
LandSar NZ spokesman and exercise facilitator Aaron Nicholson, of Wānaka, said the Kiwi canyoners were joined by two international observers from Australia and Taiwan.
Two Wellington-based Rescue Co-ordination Centre co-ordinators also attended, alongside Wānaka police, Wanaka search and rescue volunteers and incident managers and Makarora Rural Fire and Emergency members.
The canyon SAREX was part of a NZ Canyoning Association festival organised by president Dan Clearwater, of Wānaka.
The full day of training hosted by the Wānaka LandSAR incident management team (IMT) was then followed by two days of festival-related canyon activity in the Haast Pass area.
Mr Nicholson said the Wānaka team, led by Jean Kenny, did an excellent job dealing with the fictional scenario.
"This consisted of two missing Instagrammers who went looking for interesting waterfall photos to post and came unstuck in one of the canyons.
"Wānaka SAR president Bill Day and team leader offered the use of his helicopter to install the communications repeater network to ensure the safety of teams in the canyons.
"The IMT received the information fed in by Dan and prepared a full-scale briefing and deployment process for 40 canyoners. Their tasks were to search six of the main canyons in the Haast Pass area.
"A full 40-person team redeployment was required to convey the bodies the length of the canyon to the road end.
"It was an enjoyable day and pushed the IMT a bit as we don’t usually deal with such a large number of teams converging all at once for immediate tasking.
"The same applied for the in-canyon rescuers having to manage themselves and many others safely in one narrow, very high-risk environment.
"It was excellent learning and development for all those involved," Mr Nicholson said.
Mr Clearwater said the SAREX brought canyoning specialists together to test common procedures and share experiences.
"When someone goes missing in an area with steep or gorged waterways, the authorities call on canyon SAR teams to effectively and safely search these difficult environments ...
"It is important to build relationships with the authorities, so that they know what we’re capable of, and understand the challenges of the environments we work in.
"Observers from canyon SAR groups in New South Wales and Taiwan brought new ideas and fostered international relationships, to ensure we’re aligned with best practice worldwide," Mr Clearwater said.
Mr Nicholson said LandSAR wanted to thank the Makarora Rural Fire and Emergency Service for the use of its new fire station and washing didymo from participants before entering the canyons
