"I heard choppers working until about 3 in the morning," he said.
"I've never seen that down here before . . . they must've been really hammering it to get up on those rocks."
Witnesses assisted in the aftermath of the crash.
"There happened to be an off-duty police officer who was at Cooks Beach and he and a friend went out on a rubber ducky and rescued three people from the boat."
Hicks told Fairfax the fourth person on the boat looked to be badly injured so the pair decided to wait for a rescue helicopter to arrive.
"I'm not sure how far out the crash happened but I'm heading down there soon to see."
A Waikato Hospital spokesperson confirmed one man suffered critical injuries in the crash.