Quick-thinking pair rewarded for saving man

Engaged couple Jared Wooff and Kirsten Ritchie are receiving a commendation for saving a man's life.

A young couple who helped save the life of a man in Mt Wellington last year will be formally recognised for their actions at an awards ceremony this morning.

The Auckland City District police commander will award Kirsten Ritchie, 27, and Jared Wooff, 28, with a certificate of appreciation at Auckland's Town Hall.

Ms Ritchie and Mr Wooff were walking through Mt Wellington, Auckland, in December last year when they came across an unresponsive man inside a parked car.

"[We] decided to go for a walk and we were just looking around the neighbourhood, and we just happened to look up and see the car."

They immediately saw something was wrong.

"He wasn't responding [to banging on the window] so Jared found something to smash the window with."

Mr Wooff broke a window to pull the man out, while Ms Ritchie called 111.

The pair performed CPR on him until emergency services arrived, and were later told they had got to him just in time.

Ms Ritchie said she was proud of the way Mr Wooff, her fiance, handled the situation.

"Usually it takes people a second or two to react, but he was just immediately running towards the car. It definitely made me feel proud of him."

Ms Ritchie tried to downplay her role in the rescue, but Mr Wooff said she was just as involved as he was.

"She did an awesome job, she was the one that noticed it," he said.

"She was calmly talking me through the process and relaying instructions from the ambulance driver and keeping it under control from there."

Mr Wooff and Ms Ritchie said they were surprised but pleased to find out they would be honoured at today's ceremony.

"It was quite a full-on, intense experience so it was nice to feel recognised for that," said Ms Ritchie.

"We weren't expecting anything, we were happy that the guy had survived and that was kind of enough but it's nice to get recognition," said Mr Wooff.

He said they were glad to have been there to help.

"We hadn't actually been in Auckland for that long, so it was just really random that we happened to be in the right place at the right time and we noticed it."

Harrison Sage of Ellerslie will also receive a certificate of appreciation for saving a woman from drowning in the harbour off Queens Wharf in April last year after he dived in and pulled her to safety.

Andrew Tsang of Royal Oak is the fourth award recipient, for supporting two elderly Chinese pedestrians who were victims of a crash in February this year.

Mr Tsang, who saw the crash, comforted the woman while her husband was unconscious and travelled with her to hospital where he continued to support and translate for her and hospital staff.

The woman's husband later died in hospital.

Mr Wooff and Ms Ritchie will be married on Waiheke Island next January.