Lifeguards kept busy at Pukehina Beach and Maketū

Pukehina Beach lifeguards, from left, Roisin Boyle, Lukas Harris and Luca Dehmer.

Beaches were closed and warnings to stay away from the shoreline were imposed as the impact of the underwater volcanic eruption in Tonga and Cyclone Cody were felt earlier this week.

Civil Defence New Zealand issued a national advisory of tsunami activity on Sunday while warnings of higher than normal swells generated by Cyclone Cody were already in place.
Pukehina Surf Rescue lifeguard co-ordinator Andrew McDowell said Pukehina Beach was closed on Sunday and the club's junior surf programme was cancelled.

He said regional (paid) lifeguards took the decision to close the beach again on Monday "simply because there were undercurrents and an unsettled sea state".

He said generally people were listening to the advice. "Most people who were walking and recreational beach goers were heeding the warning to stay off the beach. There were surfers out there surfing, but not in great numbers."

In contrast at Maketū on Sunday morning there was a large gathering of surfers making the most of the waves.

Weekday regional lifeguard patrols at Pukehina Beach will stop tomorrow, but volunteer patrols will continue at weekends.

"They've had some minor incidents, a few little medical things and [have] done preventative actions but generally they've been keeping on top of the swimmers and bathers and people gathering kai moana - just keeping an eagle eye on them is what we've been doing [over the summer]."

McDowell said aside from last weekend, it had been a "pretty standard type of season".

"We are a club that focuses on preventative action, so we've been very proactive around that area," he said.

So far this summer the number of beachgoers had been similar to last summer.

"Generally people have been well behaved - we've had a really good buy in. I think there's been some nervousness around the community having seen how terrible the season's been elsewhere."

McDowell said the beach at Pukehina was susceptible to rips and lifeguards were always willing to talk to people about the danger.

"We have some natural rips because we have the Little Waihī Estuary and we've experienced a few more sand bars and a few more holes. They can generate rips especially at certain times of the tide when we can have flash rips happening that come and go quite quickly. For little kids it can be quite hazardous, so people do really need to watch that.

"If people are concerned with how to identify a rip or hazards in the water, don't hesitate to come down and see us at the club. We are more than happy to walk them through a rip, show them how they work and how to get out of them."

There had also been plenty of shark sightings this summer. "They've been visiting our shores regularly. Most days there have been shark sightings."

The response is to get people out of the water for around half an hour or until it is clear the shark is no longer around.

''The paid guards have had to do a number of evacuations, but we've been very lucky because most of the sharks have been staying away from the flagged area on a patrol day - probably because of the volume of people there.''

He says the predominant species has been bronze whaler, with some thresher sharks also visiting.

Surfers and onlookers were out in force at Maketū on Sunday morning.

For a number of recent seasons, lifeguards from Pukehina Beach have been assisting with patrols at Maketū, but this summer numbers are up at Maketu.

''Last season we were struggling a bit with guard numbers, but this season we've pretty much doubled our number of guards from last year so we've been able to patrol ourselves,'' said Maketū Surf Lifesaving Club chairwoman Mereheni Meads.

She said there had been five guards and 14 or 15 trainees or rookies. Paid lifeguards were also on duty over the Christmas and New Year period.

Meads said Maketū has different issues to Pukehina Beach.

"Our biggest danger still seems to be the estuary and the outgoing tide."

She said the redirection of the Kaituna River into the estuary had increased the water flow on the outgoing.

"People have been well behaved and listening to advice, but some people are still over confident.

''One [rescue] the regional guards did was someone who tried to swim across the estuary on an outgoing tide. They had never been to Maketū and never swum here before and got into trouble very quickly.

"The other issue has been where we haven't actually been on patrol where members of the public have pulled unattended children out of the water."

General advice has been to swim between the flags when they are out, to keep an eye on children, and to stay within your capabilities.

While Maketū has gone it alone for patrols, the two clubs still work closely together.

"I'll be on the phone to someone from Pukehina pretty much every week about something, whether it's our junior surf programme and working alongside them on that, to lifeguarding and other advice. It's a pretty good team out there."

Maketū's junior surf programme has 46 members and was capped when the traffic light system came into force.