Girl rescued from cliff face

Rescue crews had to scale a cliff face last night after a teenager became trapped. Supplied photo.

A teenager had to be rescued from a cliff last night, in an operation that took several hours.

Tauranga Police and volunteers from across the community rescued the 17-year-old girl last night, after she became stuck on a cliff in the Omanawa Gorge.

Police, in a combined effort with volunteers from Tauranga LandSAR and the NZ Response Team Tauranga NZ-RT16, set out to try and find the girl after receiving a report she was lost at around 3.20pm.

Three volunteers and the girl's father began to search from the bottom of the cliffs, while other searchers looked along the top of the cliff line.

The crews at the top made voice contact with the teenager but were unable sight her, so at 6.20pm a volunteer was lowered over the edge on a rope system.

He soon located her and put her into a harness so she could be pulled up the cliff.

By the time this process was completed and the volunteer was also lifted back up, night had fallen and it was no longer safe for the four searchers at the bottom of the cliff to walk out of the gorge.

For that reason, the ropes were then used to pull the four remaining people up the cliff face.

The rescue ended up taking several hours, but was police say it was completed successfully thanks to a great team effort.

The girl's mother Maree is grateful for the teams that rescued her daughter.

'They are amazing people, especially as they are volunteers taking their time out on a long weekend.”

Police would like to thank LandSAR and NZ-RT16 for their help in this event.

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1 comment

golly gosh

Posted on 16-04-2017 12:46 | By old trucker

What was she doing there,for goodness sake,all these people on their weekend off helping,hope she will make a donation to them,and thank them, Those people that done all this work are AWESOME, WELL DONE. my thoughts only,Sunlive Thankyou, 10-4 out.


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