A woman was taken to hospital by ambulance last night after apparently getting into difficulty in the Ahuriri Estuary, Napier.
St John Ambulance Service district-operations manager Stephen Smith said the service was called at 7.25pm to a possible near-drowning.
A fully clothed woman, thought to be aged in her 50s, was reported to have been helped out of the water beside a walkway, about 1.5km from Humber St, the southern side of the estuary and Pandora Pond.
The woman was later reported to have been able to walk to ambulance officers coming to her aid.