Coastguard: Call us if you need us

This pair were rescued from Lake Rotorua yesterday.

A misconception about coastguard response times is putting lives in danger, a Rotorua Coastguard safety officer says.

Two Australian tourists were rescued by Kawarau Jet last night after a kayaking trip to Mokoia Island was hit by high winds and their boats, rented from Mana Adventures, took on water and sank.

Kawarau Jet, Mana Adventure's neighbours at the Lakefront, went out to look for them after they failed to arrive back at 4pm.

After an hour of searching in choppy conditions, the kayakers were found floating in the water.

Following the rescue, Mana Adventures owner Donna Solomon said the outcome could have been very different had the kayakers had to wait for the coastguard to respond.

But Rotorua Coastguard safety officer Barry Grouby said the comments were unfair, given coastguard weren't alerted about the situation until hours later.

"We were paged at two minutes to six ... and we were down at the shed at 6.10pm. That's a pretty good response time," he said.

"It's only through luck that [Kawarau Jet] found them and didn't recover a couple of bodies. It would have been better for them to have called coastguard earlier in the piece."

A misconception that calling on coastguard for help would take too long and prove "too much trouble" meant people weren't asking for proper help when they needed it, Mr Grouby said.

"There's a perception coastguard isn't available. It's like old people not calling the hospital ... there's an element of not wanting to bother anyone."

Kawarau Jet had done a "great job" rescuing the pair in this instance, but as the national rescue unit for New Zealand, Coastguard was much better equipped for such a search.

Not only were the boats fitted out with radars and other search technology, but crew had invaluable knowledge that could mean the difference between life and death.

This wasn't the first time emergencies on the lake had been underestimated, and coastguard was trying to "tidy up" the processes so people knew who to call, Mr Grouby said.