Andrew Poulton receives Landsar Excellence Award

Tararua Land Search and Rescue personnel join Jeff Franks for Andrew Poulton's award. Stuart Heeps, David Mulinder, Andrew Poulton, Jeff Franks, Andrew Hardie, Wayne Churchouse and Shane Veale.

At a meeting in the Dannevirke Police Station on March 30, surrounded by many of his colleagues, Andrew Poulton received the Landsar Excellence Award for "Significant Contribution to Search and Rescue Over a Period of 15+ years".

He was nominated by the Tararua Search and Rescue Club upon his retirement from it.

The nomination said: "Andrew Poulton has over 20 years of service for NZ LSAR, joining Methven Land Search and Rescue in February 2000 and remaining a member there until late 2002 when he moved to Dannevirke.

"In December 2002 there was a very large search for a missing person in the Ruahines whose body was eventually found in January 2003.

"This search sparked the revival of the Tararua SAR Group and Andrew Poulton was instrumental in building the group. His efforts knew no boundaries and his personality, experience and hard work formed what was to become a very active group."

He has until recently been a field team leader and has held the positions of secretary and chairman of the Tararua Search And Rescue Club.

Those who knew him (and quoted below) certainly supported his nomination. Below are comments from other members Andrew has worked with.

Long-serving member and group chairman of Tararua Search & Rescue Club Andrew Hardie said: "Andrew Poulton has been an active member helping to drive the continued activities and administration that is Tararua SAR since 2004. He is one of those blokes who put his heart and soul into something and gets other people enthused.

"In addition to leading a field team up until recently and being our secretary/chair for many years, he has travelled to all our regional and national meetings. Andrew has a wealth of knowledge and experience which we will dearly miss when he moves on. In the last couple of years, we have lost many of our active members and Andrew has had to carry a lot of the load."

Sargeant Andy Brooke, current Police SAR co-ordinator Palmerston North Police District, says: "Andrew was approached by Police SAR after a search in the Lower Ruahines in 2002 when a need for a volunteer base on the eastern side of the ranges was identified. He came on board with very little experience, taking on the role of group chair and building a strong team around him.

"He has been a stalwart of Tararua SAR for the whole time I've known him despite being a self-employed farmer. He has been passionate about SAR and was always willing to help where he could. He is very well known and respected in his community and has been able to use those connections to facilitate SAR courses over the years."

Upon receiving his award Andrew Poulton said his experience in the Tararua LandSAR Group has been very rewarding although it has had its ups and downs.

He said the best part was being with a very tight and highly trained group of mates "who only needed to be asked and the job was done".

He was grateful that three members who started with him were there at the presentation – Stuart Heeps, David Mulinder and Shane Veale.

He said going out and finding someone was hugely satisfying, remembering a fellow who was found alive in the bush after three days of search, who admitted: "he was a bit hungry".

Even with the searches which found victims deceased it was rewarding as they brought closure to the families.

He said training exercises were always good working with Palmerston North Land SAR together with the helicopter flights on occasions.

He said compliance requirements have made the job very much more demanding in terms of administration and the toll in time being a busy farmer was also a challenge. He recalled one search which lasted 18 days and ended with a body – taking him ages to recover mentally and on the farm.

Andrew thanked everyone for the camaraderie and support over the years, the nomination for the award and wished current chairman/secretary Andrew Hardie the best in the recruitment of new members of the team. (See related story.)

Peter Zimmer, GSO Land Search and Rescue, sums up the man and the reasons for his award saying, "Andrew was the glue to the Tararua group and we were all sorry to see him stand down as group chair, but he had done more than his fair share of the work over the years!"