It was one year ago today that we were in the jetboat crash in Hanmer Springs. Although the year has sped by for us, and Skry has healed well from his injuries, not everybody was so lucky. Lesley, the Australian woman who was sitting in front of us, is still off work and still very much incapacitated by her spinal injuries. Skry got an email today from her and her partner (who was also injured, although not seriously), saying that she plucked up the courage to go on a small boating cruise on a canal. I think that was a big milestone for her. She is still trying to get compensation for the serious injuries that she suffered, which is no easy task, but since Maritime NZ found the driver at fault I think she is justified in trying to get something back. Her life has effectively been ruined by that accident.
I don't know how any of the other passengers fared after that day, one year ago. We aren't in touch with any of the others. But thank God things weren't worse for me or for Skry.
Funnily enough, Skry and the others are all heading to Hanmer for the day tomorrow. Nobody had remembered that it was the anniversary until we got that email from Lesley today. I hope they don't go on any jet boats!
Showing posts with label hanmer springs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hanmer springs. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
A news article on the jetboat crash
This is from the TV3 website. I'm pasting it here too in case they take the page down. There's also some video on the site but I don't know how to paste it in here so you'll have to go there yourselves if you haven't already seen it.
Five people have been treated in Christchurch Hospital after a jet boating accident near Hanmer Springs. Six other passengers and the driver were also injured when the jet boat ran aground near the end of the tourist ride at around midday.
The accident happened on the Waiau River in the Thrillseekers Canyon, just south of Hanmer Springs. While the boat was largely undamaged, the passengers and staff on board were all injured. However, the 12 passengers were saved from more serious injury. Constable John Eagle: “The driver
managed to control the jet boat, all credit to him, he kept it upright so nobody was trapped or in danger at any point.”
Most were able to walk to dry land where they were assessed by local ambulance staff.
The fire crews and local ambulance and doctor were doing and excellent job in extracting the patients - they managed to get everyone out of the boat in a timely fashion. Two rescue
helicopters airlifted five patients to Christchurch hospital, some with minor leg injuries and shortness of breath, while two others suffered moderate and serious back and neck injuries.
The Hanmer Springs Thrillseekers Company is running an internal investigation into the grounding which is the first blemish on the company's safety record since 1985.
However, the tourism company has received praise from police for the manner in which they dealt with the situation.
Constable John Eagle: “I can't credit them enough; they had
everything under control when we got here. They have good radio communications and they know the river better than anybody else, they did a fantastic job.”
The company's owner told 3 News: "We put our emergency
protocol in place. When an incident involves people and water, in the canyon we throw everything at it. People come first."
The incident is being investigated by Maritime Safety Authority - they will determine if the incident is the result of driver error or a mechanical fault.
Monday, January 07, 2008
My first and probably last jet boat trip
Today my blog was meant to be telling you all about our morning spent jet-boating down the Waiau River and a relaxing afternoon in the thermal spa before going out for dinner in Hanmer Springs. Instead, I'll tell you about our near-death experience. Apologies for the lack of personal photos, which would have been interesting, but I did not take my camera or phone with me on the day.
The morning started off great. The weather was beautiful, and we had a tasty and filling breakfast in a little cafe before going to the Thrillseekers shop to await our lift to the jetboating centre. We were about 10 minutes early and spent most of that time chatting to the lady behind the counter, who was really friendly and was offering all sorts of advice about buying houses in New Zealand. It wasn't long before the bus arrived to pick us up and we got chatting to the driver, Ben, who was also really friendly and turned out to be our jet boat driver as well. A five minute drive took us to the centre and we walked with the other passengers down a steep road to the riverside.
Having donned our life jackets, we all took our seats in the boat. Skry and I were in the back row, and beside me was an English lady called Rose and her partner Ross. There weren't any seatbelts, but we were shown how to brace our legs in the footwells and hold onto the handrail in front of us, because the ride was going to be quite lively and we'd be swooping in and out from the rocks. Ben laughingly said something about how he'd only been doing this for three days (not true) and he'd try not to hit anything - I bet those words came back to haunt him. The boat revved up and we were off, skimming along the surface of the water and dodging around obstacles. It seemed impossible for us to miss some of the rocks and cliff walls, but yet we did, although I did feel one bump underneath that really felt like we'd hit a rock. The ride for the first 10 minutes or so was just as lively as we'd been promised, and we all got a shower when the boat did a 180 degree turn in pretty much the length of itself, but then Ben slowed the engine and nosed in to a rock ledge. I thought he was going to tell us something about the area, but he came down to the back of the boat and leaned in behind us to look at the inner workings of the engine. He said that the bilge pump was taking in water instead of pumping it out, but there was nothing to worry about and we'd just go back to the dock and get it sorted out. We headed back the way we came, taking a direct route rather than doing the fancy manoeuvers from earlier.
Before we had reached the dock, something went terribly wrong. Because we were at the back, I couldn't really see what was happening, but all of a sudden we were bumping over rocks, and that is not something that a jet boat is designed to do. We hit something big and the boat bounced crazily, throwing us to one side, and then we hit another big rock and were thrown to the other side before coming to a slamming halt. It was virtually impossible to keep hold of the handrail or stop ourselves from being flung into our neighbours. When I was capable of thought again, my first thought was, "I've broken my arm", because my left elbow was in agony, but it quickly became apparent that it wasn't that serious and I had just bruised the bone. I turned to Skry as soon as I was able to see how he was, and he seemed relatively unhurt too apart from a scrape down his right side. Turning to my right, I immediately saw that Rose was in a bad way. She was obviously in extreme pain, and said she couldn't breathe. She was clutching her left arm and moaning with what little breath she had. Ben made his way back to our row, checking on everyone else as he came, but it was obvious that Rose was in the most immediate trouble. After calling for the emergency services, there really wasn't much that any of us could do but wait, stranded in the middle of a river with sheer cliff edges between us and the road. Rose was struggling to stay conscious, and Ross was doing his best to keep her talking, so I held her head up and talked to her too. We were afraid to move her or let her lie down, so we held her upright and kept shouting at her to open her eyes if she closed them. She could barely speak except to say that she wanted to go to sleep, and her breathing was really laboured. I honestly thought she was going to die on us there and then.
Some of the other passengers were in a bad way too. An Australian lady in front of me had hurt her back very badly and was in too much pain to even sit down - she was trying to pace about, but of course there was no room to do that - and a man in front of her had also hurt his back quite badly. A little boy had slammed his face against the handrail, so he was in some pain and his teeth were almost knocked out, and other passengers had hurt themselves to varying degrees. Back pain was what seemed to affect most people. Of the 12 people on board, there were only three of us that didn't seem to have really hurt ourselves at all - me, Skry, and the mother of the little boy. It seemed to take forever for the emergency services to arrive, although it probably wasn't more than half an hour before boatloads of St.John Ambulance staff and other rescue services started to turn up. As well as the boats, it wasn't too much longer before an emergency helicopter arrived, and then another. Luckily, there was a sort of shingle beach nearby where they could land, and the river was shallow enough for the rescuers to wade over to us. Rose was given oxygen and morphine, and eventually she and the other woman and man were rolled onto blankets, lifted onto stretchers, and carried across to the helicopters. The whole rescue operation took a long time, because of the difficulty of accessing the boat in the first place, and then working with spinal injuries and stretchers in such cramped conditions, but I have to give all credit to the staff of Thrillseekers and all the rescue people for being calm and efficient and looking after everybody as best they could.
Eventually we were allowed to leave the boat, and Skry and I were the first two people to wade across to the beach. The river was thigh-deep in places but wasn't very swift where we were crossing, so the biggest risk to me was that my plastic Croc shoes kept trying to float away off my feet. We made it to dry land and were followed by the other walking wounded, who were all assessed by the St. John Ambulance guys. Skry had realised by this stage that his right shoulder was starting to get sore and he had wrenched it somehow, so he was given a bright green wrist tag and marked as needing further assessment. By the time all the stretchers had been loaded onto the helicopters and everyone assessed, there was a jet boat available to take those of us who didn't need immediate hospital treatment back to the dock. I have to admit that I wasn't terribly keen to get back onto one of those things, but the driver was very considerate of what we had just been through, and the pain that people were in, so the short trip back was quite sedate. We were met by a jeep and ferried back to the activity centre, where a more thorough assessment of the injured was done, and all sorts of forms filled out. New Zealand isn't a litigious country, and I think the main reason for that is that accidents are covered by a sort of national insurance called ACC. This compensates people in the case of accident, and pays something like 80% of their wage if they can't work, so it was important that all the injured people had a form filled out to say what happened.
The Thrillseekers staff were all obviously shocked by what had happened - I believe it's the first time a jet boat has ever crashed like that, and certainly it was the first time for them - but they were great, fetching us hot and cold drinks, passing around cold wet clothes to cool us down after several hours in the sun, and repeatedly asking if we were okay. The lady from the Hanmer Springs shop had arrived, and she was visibly relieved to see me and Skry sitting there in one piece. She said that she had been so worried about "the lovely Irish couple" and she couldn't remember if we had booked for jetboating or rafting, so she was delighted to see that we were alright. With five people in total taken by helicopter to hospital, she wasn't sure if we were among those or not.
After further assessment on Skry's shoulder, it was decided that he should go to see a doctor, so the two of us and Ross (who was suffering back and knee pain) were ferried by ambulance to the surgery in Hanmer. The doctor arrived a few minutes after us, and took care of the two guys, and those who weren't being dealt with chatted with the two ambulance crew. They told us that Rose would most likely be fine once she got to hospital, so that was a relief. Skry got painkillers and a referral to a clinic in Christchurch to get an x-ray, so we had to return to the campsite, pack up our tent, and drive two hours back to Christchurch. I could really have done without that - my elbow was painful and getting stiffer by the minute, and we were both quite drained after the whole experience - but there was no choice in the matter. We couldn't continue on our holiday anyway, and naturally Skry wanted the x-ray as soon as possible, so I didn't have a chance to relax at all or get some proper food - I ate some pasta straight from the saucepan - but had to keep concentrating for another few hours.
We eventually got to the clinic and were met there by Phil and Lou, got the x-ray done - apparently no bones broken, but he will need further treatment - and got back to the flat in Cashel Street. We were too late to catch the 6pm news, but apparently two stations covered it and there was some video footage from the TV chopper crew which showed me in it. Only a month in New Zealand and already I'm on the news! But it was a long day, and after a quick meal I was more than ready to draw the curtains on the whole experience.
The morning started off great. The weather was beautiful, and we had a tasty and filling breakfast in a little cafe before going to the Thrillseekers shop to await our lift to the jetboating centre. We were about 10 minutes early and spent most of that time chatting to the lady behind the counter, who was really friendly and was offering all sorts of advice about buying houses in New Zealand. It wasn't long before the bus arrived to pick us up and we got chatting to the driver, Ben, who was also really friendly and turned out to be our jet boat driver as well. A five minute drive took us to the centre and we walked with the other passengers down a steep road to the riverside.
Having donned our life jackets, we all took our seats in the boat. Skry and I were in the back row, and beside me was an English lady called Rose and her partner Ross. There weren't any seatbelts, but we were shown how to brace our legs in the footwells and hold onto the handrail in front of us, because the ride was going to be quite lively and we'd be swooping in and out from the rocks. Ben laughingly said something about how he'd only been doing this for three days (not true) and he'd try not to hit anything - I bet those words came back to haunt him. The boat revved up and we were off, skimming along the surface of the water and dodging around obstacles. It seemed impossible for us to miss some of the rocks and cliff walls, but yet we did, although I did feel one bump underneath that really felt like we'd hit a rock. The ride for the first 10 minutes or so was just as lively as we'd been promised, and we all got a shower when the boat did a 180 degree turn in pretty much the length of itself, but then Ben slowed the engine and nosed in to a rock ledge. I thought he was going to tell us something about the area, but he came down to the back of the boat and leaned in behind us to look at the inner workings of the engine. He said that the bilge pump was taking in water instead of pumping it out, but there was nothing to worry about and we'd just go back to the dock and get it sorted out. We headed back the way we came, taking a direct route rather than doing the fancy manoeuvers from earlier.
Before we had reached the dock, something went terribly wrong. Because we were at the back, I couldn't really see what was happening, but all of a sudden we were bumping over rocks, and that is not something that a jet boat is designed to do. We hit something big and the boat bounced crazily, throwing us to one side, and then we hit another big rock and were thrown to the other side before coming to a slamming halt. It was virtually impossible to keep hold of the handrail or stop ourselves from being flung into our neighbours. When I was capable of thought again, my first thought was, "I've broken my arm", because my left elbow was in agony, but it quickly became apparent that it wasn't that serious and I had just bruised the bone. I turned to Skry as soon as I was able to see how he was, and he seemed relatively unhurt too apart from a scrape down his right side. Turning to my right, I immediately saw that Rose was in a bad way. She was obviously in extreme pain, and said she couldn't breathe. She was clutching her left arm and moaning with what little breath she had. Ben made his way back to our row, checking on everyone else as he came, but it was obvious that Rose was in the most immediate trouble. After calling for the emergency services, there really wasn't much that any of us could do but wait, stranded in the middle of a river with sheer cliff edges between us and the road. Rose was struggling to stay conscious, and Ross was doing his best to keep her talking, so I held her head up and talked to her too. We were afraid to move her or let her lie down, so we held her upright and kept shouting at her to open her eyes if she closed them. She could barely speak except to say that she wanted to go to sleep, and her breathing was really laboured. I honestly thought she was going to die on us there and then.
Some of the other passengers were in a bad way too. An Australian lady in front of me had hurt her back very badly and was in too much pain to even sit down - she was trying to pace about, but of course there was no room to do that - and a man in front of her had also hurt his back quite badly. A little boy had slammed his face against the handrail, so he was in some pain and his teeth were almost knocked out, and other passengers had hurt themselves to varying degrees. Back pain was what seemed to affect most people. Of the 12 people on board, there were only three of us that didn't seem to have really hurt ourselves at all - me, Skry, and the mother of the little boy. It seemed to take forever for the emergency services to arrive, although it probably wasn't more than half an hour before boatloads of St.John Ambulance staff and other rescue services started to turn up. As well as the boats, it wasn't too much longer before an emergency helicopter arrived, and then another. Luckily, there was a sort of shingle beach nearby where they could land, and the river was shallow enough for the rescuers to wade over to us. Rose was given oxygen and morphine, and eventually she and the other woman and man were rolled onto blankets, lifted onto stretchers, and carried across to the helicopters. The whole rescue operation took a long time, because of the difficulty of accessing the boat in the first place, and then working with spinal injuries and stretchers in such cramped conditions, but I have to give all credit to the staff of Thrillseekers and all the rescue people for being calm and efficient and looking after everybody as best they could.
Eventually we were allowed to leave the boat, and Skry and I were the first two people to wade across to the beach. The river was thigh-deep in places but wasn't very swift where we were crossing, so the biggest risk to me was that my plastic Croc shoes kept trying to float away off my feet. We made it to dry land and were followed by the other walking wounded, who were all assessed by the St. John Ambulance guys. Skry had realised by this stage that his right shoulder was starting to get sore and he had wrenched it somehow, so he was given a bright green wrist tag and marked as needing further assessment. By the time all the stretchers had been loaded onto the helicopters and everyone assessed, there was a jet boat available to take those of us who didn't need immediate hospital treatment back to the dock. I have to admit that I wasn't terribly keen to get back onto one of those things, but the driver was very considerate of what we had just been through, and the pain that people were in, so the short trip back was quite sedate. We were met by a jeep and ferried back to the activity centre, where a more thorough assessment of the injured was done, and all sorts of forms filled out. New Zealand isn't a litigious country, and I think the main reason for that is that accidents are covered by a sort of national insurance called ACC. This compensates people in the case of accident, and pays something like 80% of their wage if they can't work, so it was important that all the injured people had a form filled out to say what happened.
The Thrillseekers staff were all obviously shocked by what had happened - I believe it's the first time a jet boat has ever crashed like that, and certainly it was the first time for them - but they were great, fetching us hot and cold drinks, passing around cold wet clothes to cool us down after several hours in the sun, and repeatedly asking if we were okay. The lady from the Hanmer Springs shop had arrived, and she was visibly relieved to see me and Skry sitting there in one piece. She said that she had been so worried about "the lovely Irish couple" and she couldn't remember if we had booked for jetboating or rafting, so she was delighted to see that we were alright. With five people in total taken by helicopter to hospital, she wasn't sure if we were among those or not.
After further assessment on Skry's shoulder, it was decided that he should go to see a doctor, so the two of us and Ross (who was suffering back and knee pain) were ferried by ambulance to the surgery in Hanmer. The doctor arrived a few minutes after us, and took care of the two guys, and those who weren't being dealt with chatted with the two ambulance crew. They told us that Rose would most likely be fine once she got to hospital, so that was a relief. Skry got painkillers and a referral to a clinic in Christchurch to get an x-ray, so we had to return to the campsite, pack up our tent, and drive two hours back to Christchurch. I could really have done without that - my elbow was painful and getting stiffer by the minute, and we were both quite drained after the whole experience - but there was no choice in the matter. We couldn't continue on our holiday anyway, and naturally Skry wanted the x-ray as soon as possible, so I didn't have a chance to relax at all or get some proper food - I ate some pasta straight from the saucepan - but had to keep concentrating for another few hours.
We eventually got to the clinic and were met there by Phil and Lou, got the x-ray done - apparently no bones broken, but he will need further treatment - and got back to the flat in Cashel Street. We were too late to catch the 6pm news, but apparently two stations covered it and there was some video footage from the TV chopper crew which showed me in it. Only a month in New Zealand and already I'm on the news! But it was a long day, and after a quick meal I was more than ready to draw the curtains on the whole experience.
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Hanmer Springs, Day 1
Today we headed off for the second leg of our South Island tour. We're starting off with two nights in Hanmer Springs, then Blenheim, Nelson, and a few other places around the west coast, so the trip should be nine or ten nights in all depending on whether places are good enough to justify two nights' camping or just one.Hanmer Springs is an Alpine village about two hours' drive from Christchurch. The village itself is tiny - there are only 700 permanent residents - but it is surrounded by forested mountains which look lovely in the distance, and it is also home to some natural thermal springs. We haven't tried those yet but I hope to tomorrow. After setting up our tent in the Top 10 campsite, we headed out to get some food, and then rented bikes from the Hanmer Springs Adventure Centre for a couple of hours. As it turned out, our arrival at 3.25pm meant that we wouldn't get the full two hours that we were paying $25 each for, since the shop closed at 5pm, but we decided to suck it up and just go as far as we could in tha
t time. I was really happy to be back on a bike again, and the breeze in our faces was very cooling in the 30c heat, but things went awry quite quickly as Skry's chain kept coming off and his gears wouldn't change. We had to turn back and go to the shop for a replacement, knocking another half hour off our available time. What was worse, despite acknowledging that they had given Skry a faulty bike and this had ruined the first part of our ride, the manager wouldn't give us a refund on the second hour - "We don't do refunds". So we ended up paying for two hours and getting one - I was NOT impressed.Once our route map trail led us into the forest, it was no time at all before we had taken a wrong turning somewhere and ended up on an extremely narrow dirt track which was clearly designed for serious mountain bikers. It was uphill, it was too narrow for me to cycle (I was scared of wobbling off into the gully on the immediate right), and the heat and exercise on top of a big plate of venison sausages and mash was making me feel like I could throw up at any second. This part of the ride wasn't much fun! But eventually we f
ound our bearings again, and also found a proper gravel road with a gentle downhill incline, so we freewheeled most of the way back. After returning the bikes and retiring to the tent to lie down for an hour, the temperature had dropped enough for us to venture out and tackle some mini golf. This was load of fun and we treated ourselves to a well-earned pint before heading back to the campsite for the night.
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