An Ōrewa constable feared the worst when a radio call cut through the rain on a miserable Sunday to tell him a man and his dog had fallen down a steep cliff face.
When Constable Roger Dustow arrived at the beach on May 12, he could not hear anyone on the cliff face.
A witness told him the man's mastiff cross had broken its lead running towards the cliff.
The man tried to grab the dog but they went over and rolled down the cliff.
As Dustow waded into the freezing, waist-deep water at the bottom of the cliff, he called out to the man, listening for an answer.
"We had search and rescue on standby," Dustow said.