North Canterbury, 25 May 2026 - Just after 8:00pm last night, Coastguard North Canterbury were contacted by Police and asked to assist four young men stranded on a jet boat following a mechanical breakdown on the Waimakariri River.
The group were stranded near where the Waimakariri and Eyre rivers meet, approximately 10km upstream from the public jet boat ramp behind Christchurch Airport.
Coastguard North Canterbury launched their swift water rescue vessel Blackwell Rescue from the public ramp, while additional crew went by road in the unit’s land-based response truck, Mobile 1, to provide lighting and communications support. A suitable recovery point was also identified so the crew did not need to navigate downstream in the dark.
The four people were safely brought aboard Blackwell Rescue. They were all wearing lifejackets but were cold and wet after being stranded on the river.
They were transported to waiting family and friends on the riverbank, and the vessel was secured for retrieval on Monday.
“Out there, especially at night, it can get tricky pretty quickly,” says Coastguard North Canterbury Vice President Logan Pryce, who was leading the response from Mobile 1.
“The river is always shifting, and with low visibility it’s easy to get caught out. We know this river well, which meant we could get to them quickly and get everyone back safely.”
This follows another recent response on the Waimakariri River by the unit’s swift water rescue crew when they rescued a person and dogs stranded on ute
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