Boat Rescue On Waikato

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32313, 3 June 1970, Page 30

Boat Rescue On Waikato

(New Zealand Press Association)

HAMILTON, June 2.

Five young people were rescued shortly before 8 a.m. today after being trapped at the foot of a 100 ft cliff beside the Waikato River at Karapiro for 18 hours.

The rescue came after: an all-night effort byi police, Army personnel; and Electricity Department workers.

At one stage the five were confined to a narrow ledge barely two feet wide as the Waikato River rose to meet the peak-hour power demand last evening. But during the night and early morning the river level fell and the trapped five were able to spend a comparatively safe night huddled together under rugs. Those trapped were David Hosking, aged 21, of Comries Road, Queenwood, Hamilton: Russell Sykes, aged 21, of Kakanui Avenue, Hillcrest; Michael Carlson, aged 23, and Lynette Carlson, aged 17, of Horsham Downs; and Ann Sherman, aged 19, of Meadow Street, Otahuhu, Auckland. The ordeal began with a picnic trip up the river from Hamilton. But David Hosking’s 15ft runabout, Gogo, was holed when it struck rocks downstream from the Karapiro dam about 2 p.m. The boat drifted for a time before the five were able to manoeuvre it to shore and scramble out on to a narrow ledge, half a mile downstream from the dam. The five were seen by a motorist from a nearby road. The man, who did not leave his name, notified the Cambridge police. As darkness fell police decided the river was too high and flowing too swiftly to attempt a rescue by boat at night The Hamilton police were asked to send searchlights and the Army, at the I Hopuhopu military camp, Ngaruawahia, was asked to supply a cliff rescue team. Searchlights were set up by 10 p.m. The Army, with an 8-ton breakdown waggon moved into position at the top of the cliff. But efforts to bring up the trapped party were unsuccessful after the Robertson stretcher carrying Ann Sherman kept snagging on overhanging rocks and vegetation 50 feet up the cliff. These efforts dislodged i rocks from the cliff, sending

them plummeting towards the ; party which had sheltered | under an overhanging ledge.

I Some of the rocks struck the beached boat, holing it further.

At first light today the Karapiro Water Ski Club’s tow boat Miss Karapiro was launched from near the Duke Street bridge in Cambridge and half an hour later was alongside the trapped party.

Gear was loaded on board and the group was taken across the river to a small beach where parents were waiting. Throughout the night the Electricity Department kept the outflow from the Waikato hydro lakes to a minimum to keep the river level low. The output of the Karapiro generators was this morning restricted to 80 megawatts during the morning peak load period until after the young people were rescued.

The girl was strapped tightly into the stretcher and was unable to fend off scrub and rocks. After she had been lowered the call came up from below to abandon rescue attempts that night and send ’ down more supplies of warm clothing, hot drinks and cigarettes.