{"id":344788,"date":"2026-03-24T05:03:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T05:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/344788\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T05:03:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T05:03:09","slug":"major-night-rescue-operation-after-cliff-fall-on-tawharanui-peninsula-north-of-auckland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/344788\/","title":{"rendered":"Major night rescue operation after cliff fall on T\u0101wharanui Peninsula, north of Auckland"},"content":{"rendered":"

The rescue, from launch to return, took one hour and 45 minutes. <\/p>\n

Darkness, wind and lively seas <\/p>\n

Kawau Volunteer Coastguard said rescue crews navigated darkness, wind and \u201clively\u201d seas. <\/p>\n

A spokesperson wrote on Facebook that it was called to assist police and LandSAR, after being alerted at 7.40pm. <\/p>\n

The person was not visible from tracks on the ridge, so Coastguard crews guided land-based rescuers. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur task was not to rescue them but to try to locate them from the water point of view to help the land-based rescue team to find them,\u201d Kawau Volunteer Coastguard said. <\/p>\n

Coastguard said it located the person and assured them help was coming. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe wind was easterly and starting to pick up, so the sea was a bit lively as we got closer to M\u0101ori Rock,\u201d it said. <\/p>\n

Elephant Point is on the mainland, opposite M\u0101ori Rock. <\/p>\n

\"AA person slipped down the cliff just north of Elephant Point. Photo \/ Kawau Volunteer Coastguard<\/p>\n

Coastguard said crews found \u201csome less lively water\u201d closer to shore when they arrived. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was dark, and so going closer became a bit more challenging,\u201d Kawau Volunteer Coastguard said. <\/p>\n

Crews located the person halfway down the cliff, on the north side of Elephant Rock, and shone spotlights on them. <\/p>\n

\u201cOnce the rescue team was there, we put our spotlights off and returned to Sandspit to wash up and go home,\u201d the spokesperson said. <\/p>\n

A Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokesperson said they received a report at 8.04pm. <\/p>\n

The spokesperson said they responded with two fire trucks, multiple support vehicles and a specialist level three lines rescue team. <\/p>\n

Fire and Emergency teams later handed over to police and Hato Hone St John. <\/p>\n

Police said one person suffered moderate injuries and was transported to hospital.<\/p>\n

Hato Hone St John said assistance was not required. <\/p>\n

Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The rescue, from launch to return, took one hour and 45 minutes. Darkness, wind and lively seas Kawau…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,51,12636,6097,18089,3592,661,11692,111,43,139,2551,529,69,1118,90,17286,48375,4056,8527,49533,183766,85521,85480],"class_list":["post-344788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-auckland","tag-cliff","tag-down","tag-dramatic","tag-fall","tag-major","tag-nearly","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-night","tag-north","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-on","tag-operation","tag-peninsula","tag-person","tag-rescue","tag-slipped","tag-twharanui","tag-twohour","tag-unfolded"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344788","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=344788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}