Canyoning tragedy too fast for rescuers

The Mangatepopo River. Photo / Sarah Ivey

The torrent which swept six Auckland school students and a teacher to their deaths yesterday was powerful enough to have carried two of the bodies 2.5km down the Mangatepopo River.

Search and rescue teams from three police districts, along with volunteers and partner agencies leapt into action when a group canyoning in the National Park stream were caught out by a flash flood, but never had a chance of saving those who died.

Senior Constable Barry Shepherd, of the Taupo police search and rescue team, said four of the dead were already being extracted from the stream about the time police were first alerted to the incident.

The students, teacher and guide entered the river mid-afternoon near the Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pursuit Centre base, off State Highway 47 near Turangi, and were in a vulnerable spot with steep banks on either side when the water level suddenly rose.

Mr Shepherd said the four bodies were plucked from the water not far from where the group first got into trouble.

The fifth was found by searchers about 10pm a couple of hundred metres further downstream, while the last two were an estimated 2.5km further down the stream and not discovered until well after midnight.

The river is steep and narrow-sided in parts and littered with large boulders which would have been unforgiving to anyone being swept through the water.

Mr Shepherd said the river was flowing so rapidly when the incident happened that one of the search teams was initially positioned nearly 5km from the group's point of entry and worked upstream with the search.

He said there was nothing particularly challenging about the search itself, but unfortunately the nature of the event meant the likelihood of a happy outcome was slim.

"Every search throws up its challenges ... I guess each operation is unique in its location and circumstances," he said as he surveyed the scene this morning. "With our system, you just deal with it."

Mr Shepherd said while there was tragedy involved, search and rescue teams had to focus on doing their job as effectively as possible and the gravity of the situation took a back seat.

"It's actually not tough personally, because you are so busy doing your job as part of a team ... looking after those that are working for you at the sharp end, that you actually don't think about the emotional aspects of it."

He said he had been involved in some challenging search and rescue missions during 22 years in Taupo but yesterday's was the most tragic.

Regional police commander Inspector Steve Mastrovich this morning said there were not many positives to take from the tragedy and his team would move forward and concentrate on investigating what went wrong.

"It's what we're here for, so we'll just get on with it really."

- NZPA