Pair critically injured after ignoring Lion Rock barrier

The scene at Piha's Lion Rock where two men fell nearly 60 meters. Photo / Richard Robinson

Police are trying to establish what up to five men were doing on Piha Beach's notorious Lion Rock in the moments before two of them fell at least 60m early yesterday.

The two men, aged 18 and 31, were last night in a critical condition in Auckland City Hospital with head injuries and bone fractures.

Lifesaver Jonathon Webber said another man in the group alerted him shortly after the pair fell and he prepared himself to recover two bodies.

But what the group were doing there in the dead of night, and how they had breached a high barrier to reach the dangerous cliffs, was still not known.

Detective Sergeant Stan Brown of Henderson said police had spoken to one man who was present when the pair fell, about 12.15am. He had given his version of events, but police needed to stack up that story by talking to the victims.

Mr Brown would not say what the man said. "He's told us a story. We're at that stage in the inquiry where we don't know if it's the truth."

Police believe the two men went to Piha between 11pm and midnight in a white Nissan ute seen at the beach overnight on Tuesday.

Mr Webber said he had seen three other men in the carpark in front of Lion Rock following the accident.

He believed they and the injured pair were all part of the same group.

Mr Webber learned of the accident shortly after midnight when one of the group, who was described as Maori or Pacific Islander, knocked on his door.

"I'd just made a midnight snack when I heard a tap on the ranch-slider ... This guy was visibly distressed and he was quite out of breath. He said two people had fallen off Lion Rock."

The man told Mr Webber the pair had walked past a barrier, about 60m up the rock, which warns people not to go any further because of erosion.

"The minute I heard that information I immediately thought I'd be coming across a couple of dead bodies."

Mr Webber radioed Surf Lifesaving headquarters before taking a club quad bike down the beach.

He arrived at the south side of the rock to find the injured men lying on uneven ground next to each other.

"If you can imagine two people top and tailing in a bed, that's exactly how they were lying," he said.

"They were both unconscious. One was making a grunting sound with every breath. His airway was compromised ... He had a large open wound to the head.

"[The other man's] leg was at a funny angle. They were lying on a lot of loose, clay-type dirt so it was really difficult to get footing."

Fire Service personnel arrived and lit up the area while Mr Webber - a registered nurse at Auckland City Hospital - helped tend to the pair. One was loaded on to Mr Webber's quad bike and driven to the Westpac rescue helicopter waiting in the carpark.

The other man was taken to the carpark in the back of a firefighter's 4WD.

Mr Webber said he could not smell alcohol on either man.

Access to Lion Rock was cut off yesterday as five police - helped with access by a specialist rescue team - did a scene examination, focusing on an area about two-thirds of the way up the 101m rock.