A 40-year-old local man has been flown to Tauranga Hospital after he suffered a serious leg injury while rafting down the Wairoa River.
Trustpower TECT Rescue Helicopter pilot Todd Dunham said the man, who was member of a rafting party, suffered the injury after he fell in the raft, about 200m below McLaren Falls.
The 111 call came in about lunchtime today, he said.
Mr Dunham said: "Due to the amount of pain the man was in he couldn't be carried out, and because he was in unaccessible area we had to winch a paramedic down to him.
"Once the paramedic was stablished the patient in the raft, the injured man was put into a stretcher and winched up into the helicopter, and flown to hospital," he said.