Dolphin gets a lift home

The dolphin, stranded at Mangawhai Beach north of Auckland two days ago, was saved by a team of local people who dug a pool around it and used towels to keep it wet until the Department of Conservation arrived.

DoC staff used a special dolphin-lifting mat hooked to the digger and the rescue went "like a breeze", said DoC ranger Katrina Hansen.

The estuary at Mangawhai was the scene of a similar incident which sparked the best-selling children's book The Little Yellow Digger Saves The Whale.

The book by Betty and Alan Gilderdale tells of a baby orca stranded for several hours and then rescued by a digger which digs a trench so it can be floated out to sea.

It won the Gaelyn Gordon Award for a Much-loved book in 2002.