Friday, January 6, 2017
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THE INDEPENDENT VOICE OF MID CANTERBURY
New year, new arrival Amelia Lee Barwell is one of Ashburton’s earliest arrivals in 2017. Mum Melissa Barwell delivered her first child just before 12.30am on January 2 at Ashburton Maternity Hospital. Baby Amelia weighed in at 7lb 6oz.
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PHOTO MICHELLE NELSON 050117-MN-061
Tourists stranded on island in river BY MICHELLE NELSON
MICHELLE.N@THEGUARDIAN.CO.NZ
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A group of French tourists found themselves in cold water after a trip down the Rakaia River went wrong. The trio, two men and a woman, entered the river at the Rakaia Gorge boat ramp on a two-seater kayak and a tyre tube at about 4pm on Tuesday. The plan was to make their way to a designated pick-up stop at Lowes Cutting, some 26km above Rakaia. Somewhere along their downstream journey they became separated from the craft and became marooned on a shingle island in the middle of the river,
Methven police senior constable Mike Seque said. “They were stuck there with no torch and a flat cellphone,” he said. “There was no moon and they were in total darkness.” The tourists were reluctant to attempt to tackle crossing the swiftly flowing water in the dark, but eventually one of the party managed to wade and swim to the shore coming out near the Highbank Power Station to raise the alarm. Police were alerted at 10.20pm and the people on the island located soon after. “It was just luck that we were looking
in the right place and heard them calling for help,” Seque said. The Rakaia Land Search and Rescue team was notified and arrangements made for a jet boat operator to rescue them. However, a local farmer had already spotted the stranded tourists and using his knowledge of that stretch of the river, effected the rescue on his large 4WD dual-wheeled tractor. Seque said exactly how the tourists became marooned was lost in the translation. They were totally ill-prepared and underdressed for the trip but they did have lifejackets, he said.
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