The Country
  • The Country home
  • Latest news
  • Audio & podcasts
  • Opinion
  • Dairy farming
  • Sheep & beef farming
  • Rural business
  • Rural technology
  • Rural life
  • Listen on iHeart radio

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • Coast & Country News
  • Opinion
  • Dairy farming
  • Sheep & beef farming
  • Horticulture
  • Animal health
  • Rural business
  • Rural technology
  • Rural life

Media

  • Podcasts
  • Video

Weather

  • Kaitaia
  • Whāngarei
  • Dargaville
  • Auckland
  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Hamilton
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Te Kuiti
  • Taumurunui
  • Taupō
  • Gisborne
  • New Plymouth
  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Whanganui
  • Palmerston North
  • Levin
  • Paraparaumu
  • Masterton
  • Wellington
  • Motueka
  • Nelson
  • Blenheim
  • Westport
  • Reefton
  • Kaikōura
  • Greymouth
  • Hokitika
  • Christchurch
  • Ashburton
  • Timaru
  • Wānaka
  • Oamaru
  • Queenstown
  • Dunedin
  • Gore
  • Invercargill

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / The Country

Covid 19 coronavirus: Far North boaties slowly getting message

Northern Advocate
1 Apr, 2020 06:00 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Mill Bay is normally a quiet spot, but not in the early days of the Covid-19 lockdown. Picture / David Elliott

Mill Bay is normally a quiet spot, but not in the early days of the Covid-19 lockdown. Picture / David Elliott

No one who sets sail at Doubtless Bay, assuming they submit a trip report, does so without Far North Radio and Sea Rescue president Annette Hall knowing about it.

And she had plenty of people to watch over during the first days of the Covid-19 lockdown.

Up to 70 recreational boats had been "out the back of the Cavalli Islands" on the first day of the lockdown, she said, and while numbers toing and froing at Doubtless Bay had not been that high, and had eased off considerably over the last couple of days, some fishers had been reluctant to heed increasingly unambiguous demands from various authorities to stay off the water.

Commercial boats were still working, Hall said, but the concern was that recreational fishers ran the risk of getting into difficulty, which raised the prospect of infecting those who went to their rescue with coronavirus.

READ MORE:
• Covid 19 coronavirus: Lockdown 'not enough', top professor tells Govt video conference
• Coronavirus Covid 19: 58 new cases today - total in NZ now 647
• Covid 19 coronavirus: 'Generations' of Kiwis to pay for economic recovery, says Finance Minister Grant Robertson; Government recruits shopping spies
• Covid 19 coronavirus: Air New Zealand slashes jobs, Greg Foran lays it on the line

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"I told one bloke who didn't want to listen that three of our volunteers have children and the other is over 70, so which one would he like me to send out to save him?" she said.

"I assured him that he would not want me coming out to rescue him, but for goodness' sake, the Prime Minister has said it 32 times - don't go fishing."

One determined individual had said on Tuesday that he was allowed to go out because a police officer had told him he could the previous Thursday.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Meanwhile, it was not uncommon for the aggrieved to question why commercial operators could head out while they couldn't, or to point out that some boats were already out there, and they should be allowed to join them.

Some weren't aware of the lockdown, or were unclear as to what it meant, she said.

Hall's advice to those who were reluctant to heed the warnings had also included that a lot of people would be watching from the safety of their self-isolation decks, and that the police site set up for the reporting of isolation breaches had been so heavily patronised that it had crashed.

NeedToKnow3
NeedToKnow3
Save

    Share this article

Latest from The Country

The Country

‘Still there’: Removal of logging machine sent tumbling over cliff proving tricky

12 Jul 05:59 PM
The Country

The great 'goat menace' of 1949

12 Jul 05:00 PM
The Country

'Game-changer': Orchardist tackles seagull invasion with lasers

12 Jul 05:00 PM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from The Country

‘Still there’: Removal of logging machine sent tumbling over cliff proving tricky

‘Still there’: Removal of logging machine sent tumbling over cliff proving tricky

12 Jul 05:59 PM

The damaged skidder remains stuck in a hard-to-reach location near the river.

The great 'goat menace' of 1949

The great 'goat menace' of 1949

12 Jul 05:00 PM
'Game-changer': Orchardist tackles seagull invasion with lasers

'Game-changer': Orchardist tackles seagull invasion with lasers

12 Jul 05:00 PM
'Come home': Family vintage tractor returns to original owner

'Come home': Family vintage tractor returns to original owner

12 Jul 05:00 PM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP