A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
BEACH patrols at Hicks Bay beach Onepoto, also known as Horseshoe Bay, begin on Boxing Day, December 26.
Ngati Porou Surf Life Saving chairman Peter Boyd says the club’s volunteer lifeguards will patrol the beach for nine days during the busy period.
Lifeguards will patrol Ruatoria’s Reporua Beach from February.
The club recently bought an IRB and lifeguards have already begun training with it.
When the East Coast club formed last year, membership was around 25 lifeguards. In the 2014/2015 season, 22 new lifeguards qualified. The club now has two new surf instructors and a qualifed IRB driver/operator.
For achieving the largest number of surf lifeguard and instructor awards in one season per capita of members, Ngati Porou Surf Life Saving was awarded the London Trophy in September.