If you are lost in the outdoors: Remember the Rules

-Always tell somebody where you are going and what time you expect to back before you go!

-STAY CALM AND STAY PUT. If you’re lost, then you might not know which way to walk. You might think you’re walking out of the bush when in fact you’re walking further in.

-Stay together. Don’t Split up

-Think about building a shelter.

-Remember to use a whistle - it is much easier than yelling!

Some of the Units that rescue people are:
SAR – Police Search and Rescue
AREC – Amateur Radio Emergency Communications
SERT – Specialist Emergency Response Team

 
Facts

The Westpac Rescue Helicopter service provides a dedicated 24-hour, seven day a week service that often makes a life or death difference for thousands of New Zealanders.
A Westpac Rescue Helicopter is necessary when a patient is very sick or badly injured and when medics think getting to hospital quickly will make a big difference, as well as for accidents in difficult locations.
Westpac Rescue Helicopters are like a fully equipped intensive care unit in the sky. They normally have everything found in the back of a road ambulance.

In New Zealand the first known civilian helicopter rescue was as far back as 1963. The rescue saw Nelson pilot John Reid pick up a young woman who had been seriously injured in a caving accident.

The first rescue helicopter service in New Zealand was set up on Auckland's west coast in the summer of 1970-71

On January 31,1985, the Auckland service reached 1000 rescues…nowadays the Westpac rescue service in Auckland makes about 500 rescues a year!

LandSAR (Search and rescue) is the national volunteer organisation within New Zealand providing Land Search & Rescue Services to the Police and public of New Zealand

There are more then 2,500 volunteers who are SAR members and together they from over 74 different SAR squads

LandSAR started in the early 1930’s after two large searches in the Tararuas.

The Police are usually the first people to be told when people are overdue from an outdoor activity such as tramping, boating, or hunting. A SAR rescue is started and if necessary the Coast Guard, New Zealand Land Search and Rescue and AREC volunteers are called in to help. Police co-ordinate the search using the expertise of skilled volunteers such as land and marine experts.

Every year the Police do over 1100 search and rescue missions.