John's Story - Great Barrier Island

It was Sunday, 28 July 2024, when John Ogden set off on his kayak from Medlands Beach, Great Barrier Island.

John, in his eighties, was quite familiar with the area. He was an experienced kayaker, who was equipped with a wetsuit, personal locator beacon and a flask of coffee. Paddling to a nearby beach he decided to berth and enjoy the scenery with a cup of hot coffee. At about 3pm, he decided it was time to leave as it would take him about two hours to get back to the beach at Medlands. The sea was calm, but the wind had been picking up, so he started to paddle back. It was then he realised he had a bad ache in his hip joint. Paddling had become extremely hard and with the waves and wind picking up it made it almost impossible. So, he decided to turn round and let the wind and sea take him to a boulder beach he’d identified as a possible escape point on an otherwise cliffed coastline.

He got on land, absolutely soaked, pulled the kayak up above the high tide mark so anyone looking for him would see it. By this time, it was late afternoon and still sunny, so John decided to climb up to the ridge but underestimated the steepness of the hillside and the rough terrain.  It was starting to get dark. His PLB had been checked, and the battery was fine, so he tried to use it, but his fingers were so cold and numb (John suffers from Raynaud’s syndrome, which results in numb fingers in cold conditions) that he was unable to activate it. He couldn’t even get the aerial out. He decided to carry on to the ridgetop and by then it was 6pm and dark. By 7:30pm John’s wife had phoned the police to alert them of John’s failure to arrive home. After a search and rescue operation had begun, Police Eagle located John with a thermal imaging camera and dispatched two officers on the cliff around midnight. The Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter was tasked to perform a winch recovery.

On arrival at the scene the helicopter crew decided that conditions were unsuitable to conduct the winch at that time, so they developed a plan for the two police officers to escort John to a better spot on the ridge top where they stayed with him all night and to return as soon as it was light.

At first light, the Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter was back, and John was safely winched up with a critical care paramedic and flown to Aotea (Great Barrier Island) Health Centre at Claris.

John was able to return home later that day.

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