It took a mammoth effort involving about nine people, but Cecil Peak Station's overturned barge was finally righted just before 6pm yesterday.
The barge overturned about 2pm on Wednesday when it was on a routine trip from the remote Cecil Peak Station to a landing point on Kingston Rd.
The skipper, Cecil Peak farm manager Philip Rive, was the only person on board and managed to escape underwater from the wheelhouse.
The tractor and farm supplies the 20m by 6m barge was carrying were lost.
Queenstown Lakes harbourmaster Marty Black told the Otago Daily Times yesterday he and a Coastguard Queenstown crew with three divers did a "recce" early yesterday and headed back mid-morning with equipment to try to right the barge.
However, the tractor, thought to be resting about 300m beneath the surface of the lake, had "not a dog's show" of being salvaged.
The barge was towed, upside down, about 1km back to the Cecil Peak station wharf, where, using a block and tackle set-up, was righted by 6pm.
"We're pretty pleased.
"It's sitting up just off the shore. It looks pretty [good]."
Last night, the crew was still on the scene pumping out water from the barge and doing some "salvage".
