Too many rescues on river - DOC

The Palmerston North Rescue Helicopter picks up a tourist who had been on a trip down the Whanganui River and suffered a severe reaction to an insect sting. It may have been avoidable.

Bee stings, broken legs, capsized canoes and a feeling of being unable to cope - there have been a lot of rescues from the Whanganui River this summer, Conservation Department senior ranger Jim Campbell says.

People are starting canoe trips on the Whanganui River without adequate preparation - and in one family's case it could have been fatal.

It's the peak of the summer season and the river's campsites and huts are filled to capacity. DOC staff and Whakahoro's Steele family have had to pull a lot of people off.

One family with children aged about seven to 16 was particularly bad. They set off for a multi-day trip in an old fibreglass six-man canoe.

"They were pretty unfit, and pretty unprepared. They had life jackets that weren't really suitable and didn't fit. The whole thing was shaping up to be quite a disaster," Mr Campbell said.

The canoe was holed on the trip, and they patched the hole. It then leaked, and they had to bail right through their final day.

Mr Campbell came around a corner of the river to find their canoe had capsized.

"There was debris floating all the way down the river."

He took them off the river, and said they should have prepared better.

"They should have done a couple of short trips to see how their gear was."

The river has a lot of water in it and is not to be taken lightly, he said. People need to be prepared for three days of isolation, have some training, have good gear and food and take a registered beacon. If they are unsure, they can do the trip with a guide.

This summer one person tried to do the trip with a broken ankle, which flared up. Another had a kidney condition, but didn't take his medication along.

Yet another fell and broke her leg. Some people simply realise they can't cope and ask to be taken off.

"At the moment we are just liaising with police to extract someone from John Coull Hut. She has anaphylactic shock from a bee sting and had no medication with her," Mr Campbell said.

The rescues tie up DOC staff, who have been working with police and marine search and rescue to "lift the game" of the tourist operators who supply gear and put people on the river.

"Some of them are better than others at preparing people," he said.