Thousands of people were treated to emergency service demonstrations at the annual Bay Trust Rescue Helicopter open day.
About 6000 people saw demonstrations throughout the day yesterday, despite the intermittent rain, including from the Rotorua police dog section and the Armed Offenders Squad, at the hangar in the Rotorua Hospital grounds.
The New Zealand Fire Service also showed how it could rescue people trapped in cars and people were able to ask all sorts of questions of the other services to learn more about what they do.
As well as being able to meet crews, people could sit in the helicopter. There was a sausage sizzle and a raffle to win a 15 minute "non-emergency" flight in the helicopter.
The Armed Offenders Squad and police dog demonstration was particularly popular with the crowd, and Regan Greaney, 3, got a bit of a fright with the sounds of gun fire and the dog barking.