The use of night-vision goggles cut hours from a search and rescue operation launched for a couple who went missing near Houhora at the weekend.
A rescue helicopter was sent to Houhora Heads in the early hours of Saturday morning after the couple failed to return from gathering shellfish.
The pair had
gone to the beach in the afternoon and the alarm was raised by relatives about 1.30am.
"Their relatives were getting a bit worried," said John Bain, chairman of the Northland Emergency Services Trust.
"A small dinghy was found on the beach and their car was parked below the high tide mark. The water was lapping around the wheels."
The flight captain was wearing a pair of night-vision goggles recently donated to the trust by the Masonic Lodge.
The missing couple, who had built a small fire on the beach after getting lost, were spotted within 10 minutes of the helicopter arriving.
"Without them (the goggles) they would have been in extreme trouble," Mr Bain said. "In the old days we would have searched for a number of hours without seeing them. In this case we spotted them within 10 minutes.
"The goggles are a fantastic aid for search and rescue, it's just unbelievable."
If the couple had been in the cold night air much longer they would have got hypothermia, Mr Bain said. "It was extremely cold, the temperature was heading downwards to three degrees when we found them."
The Northland Emergency Services Trust was one of the first air rescue services in the country to use the goggles but most other services were now getting them.
