IN EMERGENCY DIAL 111 AND ASK FOR POLICE

If in doubt, always report an incident – delaying may mean a life is lost.

All callouts are treated as if someone’s life is in danger. Please call 111 even if you’re not sure. You may be the only person to see someone in trouble.

Callouts at Sumner are often emergencies with people in distress. Our fast response time (average of 7.5 minutes on the water from the alarm going off) is sometimes critical.

Our volunteer service really does make a difference to people’s lives – in the last two years we have saved 11 people and rescued another 30. The official stats are below.

YearIncidentsPeopleRescuedSaved
1/7/2024 - current222186
1/7/2023 to 30/6/20243878225

‘Rescued’ means a person was rescued from a dangerous situation, but not immediately life threatening (e.g. trapped on rocks with no way off).

‘Saved’ means a person’s life was saved, as they were in immediate danger of loss of life (e.g. a person drowning).

Other incidents typically involve assisting a broken down vessel, often giving them a tow.

Some of our major recent callouts are described below.

Callout 11:57am 25/4/2025

Notified by Canterbury Police of a paraglider crash. The pilot had lost lift and had done a controlled landing into the sea 100m off Moki Point close to Taylors Mistake beach.

Coastguard Sumner launched jet boat HamiltonJet Rescue in 8 minutes with 3 crew, including two Coastguard volunteers who are also trained medical professionals. This launch was closely followed by our jet ski Ian Dewe Rescue.

The paraglider was quickly located, but was entangled in their chute.

Two Coastguard volunteers entered the water. They found the the person was initially unresponsive, but breathing. They freed the individual from the chute and brought them onboard Hamilton Jet Rescue.

The rescue vessel beached at Taylor’s Mistake where the patient was handed over to Fire and Emergency New Zealand personnel, who assisted in transferring them to a waiting Hato Hone St John ambulance.

The Coastguard volunteers had just attended the local ANZAC Day service in Sumner and were gathered near the site of the old RSA when the call came through. A busy morning!

This was an incident involving many local volunteers, not just Coastguard Sumner but also the Sumner-Taylors Surf SAR Squad and FENZ, many of whom had been together just minutes earlier in the ANZAC parade to remember the fallen.

Thank you Sumner Volunteer Fire Brigade , Sumner Surf Life Saving Club and Taylors Mistake SLSC.

Callout: 1:13pm Sunday 13/4/2025

 Tasked by Police to rescue 3 people. Their small boat had engine failure, and they were washed onto rocks at Little Akaloa Heads on the Banks Peninsula.

Volunteers responded from both Coastguard Sumner and Lyttelton-based Coastguard Canterbury, and the Westpac Rescue Helicopter was tasked too.

Sumner’s all-weather rescue vessel Blue Arrow Rescue was launched in 15 minutes with 7 crew including a medic. Conditions were rough with a 1.5m swell and a 20knot easterly wind.

Blue Arrow Rescue arrived on scene as the helicopter was winching one of the casualties off the rocks, so the Coastguard crew proceeded to rescue the other two people nearby.

The two men were medically assessed on board – they were shaken up and cold but fine, and were reunited with their family onshore.

Coastguard Canterbury’s rescue vessel and Coastguard Sumner’s HamiltonJet Rescue were dispatched to the scene too, but were stood down en route when the casualties were rescued by Blue Arrow Rescue and the helicopter.

Callout: 3:56pm Tues 18/3/2025

A member of the public pressed the emergency button on our building, which triggered the siren and our alarms.

They’d spotted a young surfer in difficulties being carried out to sea off Scarborough. With a big southerly storm blowing, time was of the essence.

HamiltonJet Rescue was launched in 7 minutes and located the person in just 3 minutes. We returned them to our station for a medical check, fortunately all ok.

Many thanks to the eagle-eyed person who spotted the surfer in trouble and called us out.

We had a great response from our crew – 17 attended the callout, followed up with 21 attending our regular Tuesday training, many of whom were at the earlier callout.

Callout: 2:22pm Sat 15/2/2025

Tasked to save 3 adult swimmers in difficulties in surf at the south end of South Shore.

This was a serious situation so HamiltonJet Rescue was quickly launched with 2 crew, local Surf Life Saving IRBs responded to the incident and the Westpac Rescue helicopter was tasked too.

The swimmers were located in the surf zone and were picked up by HamiltonJet Rescue just 4 1/2 minutes after launch. Two of the swimmers had hypothermia so all were taken to the Yacht Club jetty at Moncks Bay and then onto a waiting ambulance.

A great result, and another example of local volunteers pulling out the stops to assist those in trouble in the water.

Callout: 3:10pm Thurs 23/1/2025

Tasked by Police mid-afternoon to search for a missing male swimmer off Southshore at the entrance to the Avon-Heathcote Estuary/Ihutai.

An extensive search was carried out until near dusk but with no success. Sadly the body of the person was found early the next morning.

We send our deepest condolences to the friends and family.

Whilst this was the outcome nobody wanted, local volunteers pulled together to search the area extensively over several hours.

Coastguard Sumner launched all 3 of its rescue vessels, running a shift late into the evening. In total 25 Coastguard volunteers took part in various boat and shore roles.

IRBs from several local Surf Life Saving New Zealand clubs were coordinated by the Sumner/Taylors Surf Life Saving Incident Management Team, with 5 surf boats on the water for several hours plus lifeguards onshore.

The Coastguard and Surf activities were coordinated with multiple boats working together for parts of the search.

Coastguard Sumner also trialled its drone in the search of the Southshore-South Brighton area.

All this was complemented with shoreline searches by Police and an aerial search by the Westpac Trust rescue helicopter.

This was a huge volunteer effort, many thanks to all who took part including Sumner Surf Life Saving Club and local surf clubs.