Latest news with #LandSAR
Otago Daily Times
11 hours ago
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Airport provides site for new HQ
Wakatipu Search and Rescue (LandSAR) has unveiled plans for a new headquarters at Queenstown Airport. Build committee member Russell Tilsley says the airport company has agreed to provide LandSAR with a site, next to the Heliworks and Alpine Helicopters bases, on the northern side of the runway. Now based in a corner of a Heliworks hangar, the organisation's 80-odd volunteers need a dedicated building where they can run operations, train and store equipment, Mr Tilsley says. "We've never had our own base, and with the increase in search and rescue that's happening around the region — summer and winter — we need one." With suitable land in and around the airport being rapidly snapped up, it's a case of "striking while the iron's hot". Architect Mary Jowett has completed a design for a two-level, 400sq m building with incident management and comms rooms, a training space, a kitchen/lounge area, two bunk rooms for use during multi-day operations and storage space. The committee is about to get the build priced, but Mr Tilsley expects it will cost somewhere between $2 million and $3m. A fundraising campaign will be launched in the next few months. He hopes construction can start within 18 months, and the building be up and running a year after that. Formerly based in Queenstown police station, LandSAR had to move out in 2020 during Covid, and squeezed into the Alpine Cliff Rescue team's base in a converted garage in Lucas Pl, he says. "There was a group of nearly 80 people operating out of a tin shed." Heliworks owner Nick Nicholson came to the rescue in 2021, providing the organisation with its current base in one of the company's hangers. However, it's always been a temporary measure, Mr Tilsley says. The organisation runs rescue operations — which can last a week — out of Heliworks' boardroom, and its volunteers sleep in the company's office space. It has benefited from the "incredible" generosity and support of Nicholson, Jowett and the airport company just to get this far, and will be relying on the community to get the build over the line, he says. LandSAR volunteers do a huge amount for the community, applying high-level expertise and training to save lives. "These people are vitally important, and this is our opportunity to future-proof the organisation for the next 20 to 30 years."
Otago Daily Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Airport to provide new HQ
Wakatipu Search and Rescue (LandSAR) has unveiled plans for a new headquarters at Queenstown Airport. Build committee member Russell Tilsley says the airport company has agreed to provide LandSAR with a site, next to the Heliworks and Alpine Helicopters bases, on the northern side of the runway. Now based in a corner of a Heliworks hangar, the organisation's 80-odd volunteers need a dedicated building where they can run operations, train and store equipment, Ms Tilsley says. "We've never had our own base, and with the increase in search and rescue that's happening around the region — summer and winter — we need one." With suitable land in and around the airport being rapidly snapped up, it's a case of "striking while the iron's hot". Architect Mary Jowett has completed a design for a two-level, 400sq m building with incident management and comms rooms, a training space, a kitchen/lounge area, two bunk rooms for use during multi-day operations and storage space. The committee is about to get the build priced, but Tilsley expects it will cost somewhere between $2 million and $3m. A fundraising campaign will be launched in the next few months. He hopes construction can start within 18 months, and the building be up and running a year after that. Formerly based in Queenstown police station, LandSAR had to move out in 2020 during Covid, and squeezed into the Alpine Cliff Rescue team's base in a converted garage in Lucas Pl, he says. "There was a group of nearly 80 people operating out of a tin shed." Heliworks owner Nick Nicholson came to the rescue in 2021, providing the organisation with its current base in one of the company's hangers. However, it's always been a temporary measure, Ms Tilsley says. The organisation runs rescue operations — which can last a week — out of Heliworks' boardroom, and its volunteers sleep in the company's office space. It has benefited from the "incredible" generosity and support of Nicholson, Jowett and the airport company just to get this far, and will be relying on the community to get the build over the line, he says. LandSAR volunteers do a huge amount for the community, applying high-level expertise and training to save lives. "These people are vitally important, and this is our opportunity to future-proof the organisation for the next 20 to 30 years."
RNZ News
02-06-2025
- General
- RNZ News
Ron Ealam: Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit
Ron Ealam, from Oxford in Canterbury has received the New Zealand Order of Merit for his work with Land Search and Rescue, for more than 50 years! And for half of that he's been working with rescue dogs - developing the official search dogs training programme and he's become a national trainer and assessor. Photo: LandSAR
The Independent
11-05-2025
- The Independent
Search efforts widen for ‘kindest, most compassionate' Brit missing in New Zealand for a week
A large-scale rescue operation is underway for a British hiker who went missing in New Zealand a week ago. Around 40 search and rescue volunteers are searching for Eli Sweeting, who is originally from Bristol. The 25-year-old was reported missing on 4 May after failing to return home from a hike up Mitre Peak, New Zealand. The 5,560-foot mountain is close to the shore of Milford Sound, in the Fiordland National Park on the country's South Island. The South District Police in New Zealand said the force was 'maintaining a positive outlook' as search efforts continue. The force said there was a large-scale ground and air operation to find Mr Sweeting after adverse weather prevented teams last week. 'Land Search and Rescue teams from across the southern region are working with a Dunedin -based LandSAR search dog, members of the Wakatipu Alpine Cliff Rescue team, the Dunedin LandSAR Cliff Rescue team and the Otago Surf Life Saving Club and the Southland Amateur Radio Club,' the force said in a statement. Mr Sweeting's sister Serena Sweeting has set up a fundraising page to help support the search efforts. She described her brother as 'one of the kindest, most compassionate people in my life'. She added he 'always enjoyed being in the mountains, and adventure is what he lives for.' 'Anyone who has met him will know what I mean,' she said in the post. 'He has such a positive, vibrant, and supportive energy.' After seeing a light on the mountain, the search team has narrowed in on a path that leads down it, but the dense terrain has made it difficult for infrared cameras to pick up any movement. Weather warnings forced the operation to cease on Wednesday and Thursday, but it restarted on Friday. More than £12,000 has now been raised to help bolster the search effort with additional people and equipment. Mr Sweeting's family have also flown from the UK to New Zealand to help with the search. In an update on Sunday, the South District Police said: 'Police would like to thank the volunteers and organisations working alongside Police in the search for the missing tramper.'
1News
09-05-2025
- General
- 1News
Search continues for British tramper missing in Milford Sound
Search teams will continue to look for a missing tramper in Milford Sound today. The missing tramper has been named online as Eli Sweeting, 25, who failed to return after a planned day trip to climb Mitre Peak on Sunday. The alarm was raised promptly, and a search and rescue operation began immediately, shortly before midnight on May 5. On Monday, emergency services began a large-scale air and ground search operation involving multiple agencies. In an update today, police said it was maintaining "a positive outlook as search efforts continue". "After weather prevented search teams deploying yesterday, staff spent the day planning for further search efforts, beginning today," police said. Approximately 40 staff and volunteers were working in the Milford Sound area. Land Search and Rescue teams from across the southern region are working with a Dunedin-based LandSAR search dog, members of the Wakatipu Alpine Cliff Rescue team, the Dunedin LandSAR Cliff Rescue team and the Otago Surf Life Saving Club and the Southland Amateur Radio Club. "Our search efforts continue to be greatly supported by Southern Lakes Helicopters, Heliworks Queenstown and Real NZ," police said.
