KEY POINTS:
A Northland coach driver saw the funny side of a serious rescue mission today as he drove through metre-deep flood waters and came face to face with police in an inflatable boat.
Bruce Campbell, who drives tourists in a former army Unimog tourist coach from Paihia to Cape Reinga, was called to the police station in the flooded Northland town of Kaeo to rescue tourists trapped by floodwaters.
He said as he slowly drove the four-wheel drive, air conditioned coach into Kaeo, he had a colleague wading in front of him in floodwater up to his waist.
"It was as funny as hell. Next minute round the corner comes a bloody rubber duckie with a cop and another guy in it.
"It was priceless. They pulled up and stopped at the front of the coach."
Mr Campbell said he was getting a little nervous about the rapidly rising flood water which was over the wheels of the former army truck.
"I told the cop in the rubber duckie to go back and tell those roosters at the police station that when I get there, we're going."
Other tourists sheltering at the fire station were taken to the police station in the inflatable boat to be picked up in the Dune Rider coach and taken back to Paihia.
He said the 12 tourists he took back to Paihia and Kerikeri left their cars on high ground in Kaeo. There was nowhere for them to stay in the tiny Northland town.
He said had he delayed his departure with the tourists any longer he may not have got out of town.
"The township itself would have had at least half a metre of water running through it. But in the approaches to Kaeo there was a metre of water.
"I wasn't game to go down from the police station to the fire station. I said, no way. Anybody who wants to come jump on because I'm gone."
He said the Unimog negotiated the metre-deep floodwater to get out of the town but he doubted any other vehicle could have got through.
"I know what the limitations of the vehicle are and we were getting very close to them. We were right on the edge," he said.
- NZPA
