Two 9-year-old girls were airlifted out of the Omanawa Gorge yesterday after spending a miserable night stranded in the bush with their fathers.
The TrustPower TECT rescue helicopter found the group just before 11am on its second traverse of the 6km gorge searching for the kayakers.
"It is quite gnarly in there
and it took a couple of passes to find them," rescue pilot Todd Dunham said. "They were tired and hungry but in good spirits - they had huge smiles on their faces."
It was decided to airlift the girls out to the search base while their fathers, aged in their early 40s, continued kayaking to a point where they could be picked up.
Mr Dunham said there did not seem to be much water in the river at the point where they were able to hover down to reach the girls near Belk Rd.
Tauranga Search and Rescue coordinator Sergeant Craig Madden said the two local families had not anticipated the time it would take to traverse the gorge and ran out of daylight.
Police were contacted at 8pm on Saturday to say that the kayakers had not returned home. After the group called to say they would leave their kayaks and walk out to Omanawa Rd, they had changed their minds and sent a text to say it was too risky and that they would spend the night in the bush instead.
Mr Madden said the group had been dropped off at Sarona Park Drive on Saturday where they intended to enter the gorge, but after speaking to a local they took their kayaks further down and entered downstream of the Omanawa Falls.
They returned to their kayaks after the night in the bush and continued down stream until they heard the helicopter, but were hidden by the bush canopy. Once the girls had been airlifted to safety, the fathers opted to continue to a point where they could be picked up.
Mr Madden said the group was wearing wetsuits and life jackets and were a lot warmer than if they had been in normal clothing. They made the right decision to stay put for the night, given that they had no lights or equipment to trek up the steep face of the gorge, he said.
