{"id":198273,"date":"2025-12-23T16:06:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T16:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/198273\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T16:06:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T16:06:15","slug":"boatie-survives-burning-boat-on-lake-taupo-after-hour-in-water-without-lifejacket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/198273\/","title":{"rendered":"Boatie survives burning boat on Lake Taup\u014d after hour in water without lifejacket"},"content":{"rendered":"

A life-ring was dropped to him, and he was subsequently retrieved by another vessel before being transferred onto Coastguard\u2019s Taup\u014d Rescue vessel.<\/p>\n

Coastguard volunteers then transported him back to Kinloch, where he was treated for minor injuries.<\/p>\n

Senior Constable Barry Shepherd said the incident could have ended very differently.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings can change in a heartbeat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shepherd said it was extremely important that people were fully prepared when they enjoy water activities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always recommend people wear their life jacket at all times, take two forms of communication, tell someone where you\u2019re going and when to expect you back on shore.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople going out on the water alone should also take extra care.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taup\u014d Police also remind boaties that they\u2019re to follow the Lake Taup\u014d Navigation Safety Bylaw 2020.<\/a><\/p>\n

Shepherd said over the past few years, people have been shirking their responsibilities, like letting people under 15 drive boats, exceeding speed limits and not wearing life jackets.<\/p>\n

Any breach of the bylaws was likely to result in enforcement action.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome respect and responsibility goes a long way to ensure everyone gets home safely,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Iwi response<\/p>\n

Tuwharetoa M\u0101ori Trust Board chief executive Rakeipoho Taiaroa has praised emergency responders, and said the iwi were thankful the boatie was found in time.<\/p>\n

However, Taiaroa encouraged all lake users to take care this summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful time of the year to enjoy our lake but we want people to keep in mind that Lake Taup\u014d is a very dynamic environment and conditions can change quickly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ask that those using the lake to ensure their boats and safety equipment are ready for all conditions – it\u2019s better to be prepared and safe, than sorry.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone has to take responsibility for their own actions over this busy summer period, because one mistake can lead to a bad outcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re thankful this incident ended with the boatie being found in time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A life-ring was dropped to him, and he was subsequently retrieved by another vessel before being transferred onto…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,682,5532,121774,14772,9525,111199,3087,71,33262,78,50521,13207,122184,440,16507,111,43,139,69,90,675,42371,57816,33140,1852,1455,376,1339],"class_list":["post-198273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-being","tag-boat","tag-boatie","tag-burning","tag-caught","tag-expedition","tag-fishing","tag-from","tag-hour","tag-in","tag-iwi","tag-lake","tag-lifejacket","tag-local","tag-lucky","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-police","tag-prompting","tag-survive","tag-survives","tag-taup","tag-warning","tag-water","tag-without"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}