Howick Coastguard

Recently we celebrated the volunteers at Howick Coastguard with our 2024 awards evening.
• Trainee of the Year - Sam Mansoor
• Operational of the Year - Scott Kennedy
• Skipper of the year – Ian Gibson
• Club Spirit "Squeaky MacPherson"- Blair Telfer
• Community Events & Fundraising - Ian Gibson
• Maintenance - Herman Van Cingel

Congratulations to not only the winners, but also the nominees and to all our wonderful volunteers for the great work you do!

Great work by our duty crew today on Howick Rescue 1. It’s always a good day when a life is saved!

Hi friends, starting tomorrow at Z Pakuranga. Howick Coastguard are one of the ‘Good in the Hood’ charities to choose to support. Z Customers are given an orange token to pop in one of the four boxes, voting for their favourite local group. We would love it if you would choose us ❤️

At short notice it was great to see the Howick team pull everything together for yesterday’s announcement. This included getting the tractor back from the repair company and HW1 back from Halfmoon bay marina to its home at Howick beach. We have a fantastic group of volunteers. If you have thought about joining our volunteer team, please get in touch.

It was a great opportunity to host Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, Minister of Transport Simeon Brown MP and Associate Minister of Transport Matt Doocey MP this morning at Howick Coastguard for their announcement of additional funds to go towards saving lives at sea.

Great news for Coastguard and our 2,000+ volunteers!

We just got a funding boost of $19.5 million over the next four years.

This will really help us with our critical search and rescue work, our efforts to reduce the drowning toll out on the water, and to ensure we can keep helping our water-loving population across our major lakes, rivers and oceans.

📷 Howick Coastguard volunteers with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, Minister of Transport Simeon Brown MP and Associate Minister of Transport Matt Doocey MP.

It was fantastic to host the wonderful people from the Rotary Club of Howick at our Tuesday night meeting. They are valued supporters of Howick Coastguard and we couldn’t do what we do without their generosity.

Do you ever wonder where the money collected from Bookarama,, Fun Walk and Fun, and other fundraising activities goes? It all goes back into our community. Last night we were able to present
$10 000 to Howick Volunteer Coastguard to help upgrade equipment. How cool is that!

Pix shows Jenny Rowsell, President of HCG accepting the 'cheque,' alongside Mike Abercrombie, RCH Director, and Malcolm Pascoe RCH President.'

The Howick Coastguard team proudly attended the ANZAC services this morning, with our life member Mike Cole as the MC. Following the service, a crew took to the water for our duty day, ready to assist boaties in need.

Enjoying the beautiful Autumn sky in between taskings.

Merry Christmas from all the volunteers at Howick Coastguard. Thanks for all your support and we wish you a safe and fun summer on the water.

Last weekend our unit had the chance to get together and celebrate our successes from the past year.

Part of this celebration is the awarding of our much-prized annual awards - a massive congratulations to all those in our team who were presented with a much-deserved award.

🚤 Trainee Award – Basil Irwin Award: Awarded to the Trainee who has shown great growth and development as well as personal commitment to the Unit🚤
🏅Badger McNamara

🚤Operational Award – Ian Gibson Award: Awarded to the Operational or Senior crew member that has gone above & beyond in making the unit a better place over the last 12 months 🚤
🏅Scott Kennedy

🚤Community Engagement & Fundraiser: Awarded to the Unit member who has gone above and beyond to raise funds, engage with the community and raise the profile of Howick Volunteer Coastguard🚤
🏅Ian Gibson

🚤HVCG Maintenance: Awarded to the member most actively involved in equipment maintenance throughout the year including boat, tractor, trailer and building🚤
🏅Dave Cox

🚤Stirrer Award: Awarded to the member who has shown great proficiency in the use of a large paddle and outstanding ability to stir the pot or any other vessel🚤
🏅Dave Hatton

🚤Skipper Award – Brian “Litty” Litten Award: Awarded to the Skipper who hs shown great leadership, high level of involvement in training, positive interactions with crew and overall consistent commitment to the Unit🚤
🏅Ian Gibson

🚤Squeaky MacPherson for Best Club Spirit: for outstanding commitment to the Unit, displaying dedication to the roles undertaken and whose presence made a significant difference to the overall wellbeing of Howick Coastguard and the Coastguard movement as a whole.🚤
🏅Seb Thompson

🚤Presidents Award🚤
🏅Rochelle Williams-White

🚤The Rutherford Award: For the most meritorious rescue of the year🚤
🏅Crew responsible for the rescue of three people from the water off Gulf Harbour

Police and search teams are today continuing the search for a man reported missing off Thames Coast Road, North of the Waikawau Boat Ramp on Monday 11 September.

Police Search and Rescue staff, Coastguard, LandSAR, and several volunteer teams are searching the area. Police drone and helicopters are assisting with the search.

The main area that is being searched today is the Thames Coast-Tapu to Wilsons Bay.

As part of our enquiries, Police would like to hear from anyone who may have information that can assist with the search.

The missing man is a 25-year-old from Waihi. He was wearing black and white basketball shorts, a grey hoodie and a black beanie.

Anyone that comes across anything of interest in the area is urged to contact Police.

Information can be provided to Police on 105 referencing file number 230912/1041.

Police would like to thank all of the volunteers who have given their time and the local community for their support during the search.

What a beautiful day to be out in the Hauraki Gulf! ☀️ After an early tasking (taking a stricken ‘ski back to Half Moon Bay) we took advantage of the nice weather and spent some time at anchor, familiarising some of our newer crew with our firefighting/dewatering equipment 🔥 🚿

We’re so proud to share that our own skipper and former president, Ian, was presented with an award from the Howick Local Board this week in recognition of his contribution to the community.

Thanks Ian for all that you do! 🎉 🚤

Photo: Ian Gibson pictured with Adele White of the Howick Local Board

If you see a full flotilla of Coastguard boats out and about tomorrow, don’t fret!

We’re just upskilling our crews so we’re ready for the next challenge we might face on the water 🚤 💨 💨

‼️PSA: TRAINING EXERCISE‼️

If you’re on the Hauraki Gulf tomorrow, you’ll see a heavy Coastguard presence as we run our largest ever training exercise. These are a hugely important part of testing and training our amazing volunteers and the following units taking part: Coastguard Hibiscus, Coastguard North Shore, Auckland Coastguard, Waiheke Volunteer Coastguard, Howick Coastguard , Coastguard Maraetai and Titirangi Volunteer Coastguard.

We have representatives from around the motu observing and taking the learnings back to their unit and we’ll welcome Waihi Beach Volunteer Coastguard, Coastguard Nelson, Coastguard Marlborough, Coastguard Taranaki , Coastguard Bluff, Coastguard Riverton Coastguard Dunedin.

Impromptu training sessions often create some of the best learning experiences, and today we had a great chance to upskill with our friends aboard Lion Foundation Rescue from Auckland Coastguard.

What started as a coffee and catch up turned into a training on how to transfer patients on a stretcher between vessels.

One of the Lion crew volunteered to relax on the stretcher aboard Howick Rescue 1 and was wrapped up nice and snug before being moved between vessels while tied up at the wharf.

We then then headed out of the bay to have another go, this time while tied alongside Lion as they made way - slow and steady was the mantra here and everything worked like a charm 😁

There’s nothing better than putting our crew and gear through their paces so when it’s crunch time we know what to expect and how to react ⚡️

Opportunities to hone our skills with this many other volunteers don’t come around often, so when they do we jump at the chance to be involved! Check out the photos from our TRAINEX (training exercise) 🚤