Ready for rescue

Wanaka’s award-winning search and rescue specialist swift water/canyon team help police divers retrieve the body of climber Hamish Attenborough in this file photo taken last year.

Wanaka Detective Alan Lee said the area’s visitor numbers were now increasing, the climbing season had arrived, and search and rescue volunteers were doing a lot of training to deal with an expected increase in callouts.

There had been at least eight rescues over the past four weeks, including two rescues from Mount Aspiring, one from the Cascade Saddle and one at Timaru Creek about three weeks ago.

Det Lee said the national Rescue Co-ordination Centre had also resolved several beacon-activated events without involving police.

In previous years, search and rescue teams could spend several days looking for people, but now with personal locator beacons they could resolve reports within a few hours, he said.