By Lloyd Burr
A four-wheel-drive vehicle that was swept away with its occupants and marooned on rocks in the middle of Nelson’s Waimea River has been towed out this afternoon.
Three males and a female had to be rescued by helicopter from the car’s roof when it was washed downstream during their attempt to cross the river last night.
Their actions are being called “foolish” by police but charges are unlikely, despite the helicopter callout costing more than $3,000.
This afternoon two of the lucky occupants, Alec Breen and Chris Millar, returned to the river with some friends to tow the Isuzu out.
It took two other four-wheel-drives to haul the vehicle out before it was towed back to Mr Breen’s house.
He says he’s glad the car is out and the ordeal is over.
“It was cold and daunting. I was pretty happy to see the chopper though knowing we were all going to get off safe.
“Today, we just wanted to get towed out and go home,” he says.
Mr Millar says everyone remained “surprisingly calm” during the rescue.
“We all got out the windows and we went back to find the guy in the back seat and we dragged him onto the roof.
“We stayed there for a couple of hours until ‘Mr Helicopterman’ decided to help us,” he says.
The helicopter callout wasn’t cheap though, and although the cost hasn’t been finalised, police will have to cop the bill.
“Helicopters are very expensive pieces of machinery and we used one for some considerable time,” says Senior Sergeant John Price.
Wellington’s Westpac Rescue Helicopter service costs around $3,200 an hour to operate and yesterday’s operation lasted more than an hour.
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