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A rash of bizarre and downright idiotic behaviour this Christmas and New Year period shows they don't call it the silly season for nothing.
Irish luck may have saved two tourists and a New Zealander who were rescued after a night in the open wearing only T-shirts and shorts and with just a bottle of scotch whisky for sustenance.
Irishmen Michael Casey, 24, and Paudie McCarthy, 26, and New Zealander Vinnie Elliot, 27, were airlifted from the steep bluffs near Punakaiki on December 31 after becoming trapped there the evening before.
The trio had scrambled high up the steep hill through scrub, but hit a sheer drop when they tried to climb back down. Soaked by the rain and exhausted, they decided to set up camp in a large tree trunk for their second night. They had brought in a load of leaves to help them keep warm when, about 7.30pm, they heard the helicopter.
"We were just there thinking 'this is going to be New Year's Eve stuck in a tree trunk'. It was going to be awkward, with three of us there when it came to midnight," said Mr Casey.
A hoax mayday call in Rotorua on Christmas Day set the tone for a season of stupidity on the nation's waterways.
The call to Coastguard volunteers said a boat with two people on board was sinking off Mokoia Island in Lake Rotorua. A helicopter was also sent.
"There was nothing to be found, it was a beautiful day, if there actually had been a boat sinking there would have been some evidence of it and there wasn't," Detective Sergeant John Wilson said.
"We try to do a job and actually save people's lives and make a difference and you've got clowns who decided to do things like this for some sort of perverse amusement."
Three young men survived the night of December 30 in a makeshift shelter next to the Rangitata River, in South Canterbury. The men, aged between 17 and 22, had floated down the river on a toy raft and an inflatable plane at 9pm. When they had not met a female friend by midnight, the alarm was raised and a search was started early the next morning.
"This sort of behaviour is crazy and people shouldn't go boating without the correct boats and equipment," said Sergeant Mike Wingfield, of the Timaru police.
In another toy raft incident, on New Year's Day two people were rescued after nearly being swept out to Cook Strait.
Sergeant Dave Houston said two police patrol boats were called and a helicopter put on standby after the pair, believed to be aged 21 and 17, were seen waving for help a kilometre off Wellington's south coast.
"It was a pretty stupid thing to do in a toy inflatable," said Mr Houston. "With gale-force winds, it could have turned to custard very quickly."
Police also rescued three ill-equipped divers off Moa Pt, south of Wellington. They had no life jackets, flares or a dive flag, and their boat's outboard motor was broken.
Farther south, a man decided to float naked along the Motueka River - reappearing four-and-a-half hours later. Sergeant Steve Savage of Nelson police said the man, "due to his state of mind", decided to strip off and float downstream, the Nelson Mail reported.
The man waved to a trout fisherman, who alerted police. Fears were mounting for his safety when an officer stationed downstream had not seen him by 5.30pm. Police were about to send up a helicopter when the man contacted them to say he was okay.
An Auckland man who had a few drinks to celebrate the New Year had a watery start to the day when he forgot to replace the bung in his boat.
The man, who sent out a mayday call after his small dinghy became swamped and submerged early on New Year's Day, was wearing an inflatable life jacket, had a handheld VHF radio and a headlamp on.
And dumb luck may have saved a Christchurch man who spent more than 24 hours adrift being circled by sharks and battered by storms.
Nathan Maclure, 26, was spotted by a Russian trawler on his broken-down jetski about 13km off the Canterbury coast on Saturday. He was never reported missing.
- NZPA
