Source: Radio New Zealand
In a world that can seem increasingly digitised and isolating, board games offer a unique chance to connect with others. And over the holiday period, the right game can make all the difference while spending time with friends and family.
But board games are part of a multi-billion dollar industry, so it can be hard to decide which games to try out – or which ones to gift. Luckily, I have some recommendations.
Ancient board game, known as the Royal Game of Ur.
AFP / Shwan Mohammed
Board games have been part of societies for at least 4000 years. The Royal Game of Ur, which scholars discovered in the tombs of ancient Sumer (now modern-day Iraq), can be dated back to around 2500 BCE.
This not only showed board games as an integral part of ancient homelife, but something people held dear.
From what archaeologists can glean from the re-discovered rules, the game involved moving pieces around a board (and probably inspired later games such as backgammon).
Meanwhile, in Mediterranean cultures such as Athens and Rome, dice games were often played at taverns, with people gambling on the results. Indeed, according to historian Karl Galinsky, the Roman Emperor Augustus “loved gaming, literally rolling the dice for hours”.
Today, tabletop games are a massive industry. Some games, such as Kingdom Death: Monster and Frosthaven, were boosted by millions of dollars raised through online crowdfunding campaigns.
Modern board games can range from party games that can take about half an hour, to epic war games that can take a whole day.
Australia has contributed significantly; one of the most critically-acclaimed board games of the 21st century, Blood on the Clocktower, was designed by Sydney-based Steven Medway.
There are a number of resources devoted to covering the vast range of board games available. (file image)
Unsplash / Mireille Raad
For those prone to decision paralysis, there are a number of resources devoted to covering the vast range of board games available. These include critic channels such as Shut Up and Sit Down, as well as YouTube channels such as No Rolls Barred, where you can see various board games being played.
There are even online digital libraries such as Board Game Arena, where you can try games (including some of the list below) before you buy them.
With that said, here are my seven recommendations for anyone wanting to try out a new board game these holidays.
This colourful, fast-paced game has great art, and a “menu” that can be changed depending on the number of players (up to eight) and their familiarity with the game.
Players win the game by creating the best combination of cards, depending on what’s available, by rotating the cards from player to player like a sushi train. It’s easy to learn and relatively cheap.
In this party game, teams have to try and guess the location of a hidden target on a spectrum, using a clue from one “psychic” team member. The ends of the spectrum reflect two binaries, such as hot–cold or optional–mandatory, and the target falls somewhere in between.
The closer the team gets to where the psychic thinks the target should go, the more points they score. Wavelength is one of those games where no matter if your team gets it right or wrong, you can expect people to give their two cents.
In these team games, players play mediums seeking the counsel of another player – a ghost – who gives them clues to important information about murders in the house, including the ghost’s own murder.
The ghost offers the other players tarot cards with abstract artwork with which they must attempt to discern the murder weapon, location and culprit.
This game sees players take the role of potion makers at the local fair, who must push their luck by drawing ingredients out of a bag to make the best potions without them blowing up in their face. It’s simple to teach and hilarious when someone else blows up their cauldron (although arguably less when it’s you).
This is one of the most celebrated games from board game designer luminary Reiner Knizia. Players are art dealers auctioning off beautiful paintings done by five professional artists. Players might even forget to play as they get caught up in simply admiring the pieces they are auctioning off.
Modern Art remains a fiendishly clever game that is easy to learn but hard to master.
This strategic racing game is based on 1960s Formula 1 racing. The base game boasts four tracks on two gorgeous boards, and lovely little cars that pass each other and risk spinning out around corners.
By far the most expensive (and complicated) game on this list, Nemesis can best be described as Alien: the board game.
Players have to move through a spaceship, discovering rooms and items as they go, taking care not to alert the horrific extraterrestrials that have managed to get onto the ship – represented by amazingly designed pieces. It’s a truly tense and fun experience for a full afternoon.
*Matthew Thompson is an academic in history and communications at the University of Southern Queensland.
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Source: Radio New Zealand
Shona Laing was just 17 when she had her first national hit with ‘1905’ in 1972.
Fifteen years later, she was reintroducing herself as a different kind of artist with the 1987 album South.
In a career spanning more than five decades, Shona Laing has made albums that mark each stage of her musical life.
Essential New Zealand AlbumsSeason 5 / Episode 8
Shona Laing in 1987.
Supplied
When South was released in 1987, Laing was already 15 years into a career that had begun with a TV talent quest that beamed the then-teenage singer-songwriter into all the nation’s living rooms.
Laing followed this with a series of local hits, a long spell in Britain, including a stint with Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, and her return to a New Zealand that had gone through some big cultural changes in her absence.
As Laing would later reflect, she entirely missed ‘the Muldoon years’.
This video is hosted on Youtube.
Though she was absent for the Springbok Tour protests of ’81, Laing would later address the subject of apartheid on South, along with another issue that was emblematic of the 1980s – New Zealand’s nuclear-free policy.
As a musician, Laing had gone through some changes of her own.
Last time the country heard from her, she was an acoustic guitar-strumming singer-songwriter.
Shona Laing in London, 1980.
Shona Laing collection
One song in particular defined those early years. A hit even before she had finished high school, ‘1905’ was a meditation on time, framed as an unsent letter to the American actor Henry Fonda, whose son Peter had recently co-written and starred in the film Easy Rider. Peter Fonda’s sister Jane Fonda was a figurehead of the anti-war movement.
Laing may have been the only teenager in the world obsessing not over the young Fondas, but their father, whose heartthrob heyday had been in the 1940s.
‘1905’ was an early example of the unconventional angles at which Laing approaches her subjects, and which help make her songs so unique.
Shona Laing performing in 1974.
Courtesy of Shona Laing
In 1972, ‘1905’ was a top 5 hit for the 17-year-old Laing, but it touched on a theme that would recur in her songwriting more than a decade later: of America’s cult of celebrity, the dominance of its imagery, and its influence on New Zealand.
This was something that stood out to her even more clearly after almost seven years away.
One of her new songs, ‘(Glad I’m Not) A Kennedy’, became South‘s best-known track. Like ‘1905’, it ruminates on a particular American type of fame, its promises and its perils.
This video is hosted on Youtube.
Beyond the fact that, for a country as small as New Zealand, America’s influence is impossible to ignore, there’s a personal reason why America looms so large in Laing’s writing, including being the subject of her two biggest local hits, as she explained in a 2022 interview with RNZ.
“You know all through my career people have said, ‘Your songs are very personal, aren’t they?’ and I’d go, ‘Well, actually no, I’m writing about the world here.’
“But I was writing about the world from a very personal place, which is my life. My father was going to the States when I was about three years old. He had a business importing things that New Zealand needed, because he met people during the war, and he had business relationships with America and Japan. So America was a thing in our family.”
Shona Laing in 1985.
Courtesy of Shona Laing
“Then [I spent] seven years in Britain, which at that time in the world was pretty much the core of anti-Americanism; they would take the mickey out of America, they had no respect.
“When I came home, I found the transition from New Zealand being more British than the British to just blatant American culture sprawled all over the place, shocking. So the fundamental physical, personal response to that was songs like ‘America’, ‘Kennedy’ and ‘Neutral and Nuclear Free’.”
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Source: Radio New Zealand
An active supercell south from Rakaia. MetService/Screenshot
The thunderstorm that lashed the South Island and brought widespread and large hail is one of the year’s most intense storms, MetService says.
Large parts of the mainland have been under brief severe thunderstorm warnings through Saturday afternoon.
The severe thunderstorm watch that had been in place for several parts of the South Island has now been lifted.
Regions including Timaru, Ashburton, Central Otago, Southern Lakes, Dunedin and Southland were under watch throughout Saturday afternoon and evening, with some parts experiencing heavy rain, lighting and hail.
At one point NZTA dispatched crews to State Highway 8 between Timaru and Fairlie after reports of hail blocking the road, and cars getting flooded.
“There has been some very active weather in parts of the South Island, that east and south eastern area, all the way down to Southland, Clutha, North Otago and Dunedin and up the Canterbury coast as well, there’s been lots of lightning, lots of thunder and also hail,” MetService meteorologist Devlin Lynden said
“We’ve seen reports of widespread hail particularly in that Canterbury Plains area, as well as very long-lived thunderstorms and heavy downpours in that Canterbury area.”
He said storms like this could happen at any time of year.
“Particularly in summer, it’s often we see thunderstorms in summer,” he said.
“But what is unusual just how intense some of these thunderstorms have been, one of our forecasters was saying the cell over Canterbury is one of the strongest he’s seen this year,” Lynden said.
MetService confirmed that the most severe hailstorms have been from a supercell storm in the southern Canterbury Plains region, which is a powerful thunderstorm with a rotating updraft.
“This rotation allows the storm to last longer and become more intense than typical thunderstorms, increasing the risk of severe weather such as large hail, damaging winds, and heavy rain,” MetService said.
Supplied / MetService
“That was some hail storm this afternoon!” Ashburton District Council said in a Facebook post.
It said its roading maintenance contractor was out after the hail storm clearing street gutters to make sure stormwater could drain away.
Horticulture New Zealand’s regional representative, Chelsea Donnelly, said there had been no reports so far of any damage to crops.
Two farms near Ashburton contacted by RNZ said the severe hail storms did not reach them.
MetService had said that very heavy rain can cause surface and/or flash flooding about streams, gullies and urban areas.
Poor visibility and surface flooding could make driving difficult, and large hail had the capacity to “cause significant damage to crops, orchards, vines, glasshouses and vehicles”.
“Should severe weather approach or if you feel threatened, take shelter immediately.”
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Source: Radio New Zealand
Follow all the cricket action, as the fourth in the five-test series between archrivals Australia and England continues at the MCG in Melbourne.
Australia swept to an 82-run win in the third Ashes test at Adelaide Oval to retain the urn with two matches to spare.
After eight-wicket defeats in Perth and Brisbane, England have lost the Ashes in three matches for the fourth consecutive tour, while losing 16 of their last 18 tests in Australia.
First ball is scheduled for 12.30pm NZT.
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Philip Brown
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Source: Radio New Zealand
An active supercell south from Rakaia. MetService/Screenshot
The thunderstorm that has lashed the South Island and brought widespread and large hail is one of the year’s most intense storms, MetService says.
Large parts of the mainland have been under brief severe thunderstorm warnings through Saturday afternoon.
Selwyn and Ashburton are currently still under severe thunderstorm warning.
Other parts of the South Island including Timaru, Christchurch city, Central Otago, Southern Lakes, Dunedin and Southland are under a severe thunderstorm watch until 9pm on Saturday.
At one point NZTA dispatched crews to State Highway 8 between Timaru and Fairlie after reports of hail blocking the road, and cars getting flooded.
“There has been some very active weather in parts of the South Island, that east and south eastern area, all the way down to Southland, Clutha, North Otago and Dunedin and up the Canterbury coast as well, there’s been lots of lightning, lots of thunder and also hail,” MetService meteorologist Devlin Lynden said
“We’ve seen reports of widespread hail particularly in that Canterbury Plains area, as well as very long-lived thunderstorms and heavy downpours in that Canterbury area.”
He said storms like this could happen at any time of year.
“Particularly in summer, it’s often we see thunderstorms in summer,” he said.
“But what is unusual just how intense some of these thunderstorms have been, one of our forecasters was saying the cell over Canterbury is one of the strongest he’s seen this year,” Lynden said.
MetService confirmed that the most severe hailstorms have been from a supercell storm in the southern Canterbury Plains region, which is a powerful thunderstorm with a rotating updraft.
“This rotation allows the storm to last longer and become more intense than typical thunderstorms, increasing the risk of severe weather such as large hail, damaging winds, and heavy rain,” MetService said.
Supplied / MetService
“That was some hail storm this afternoon!” Ashburton District Council said in a Facebook post.
It said its roading maintenance contractor was out after the hail storm clearing street gutters to make sure stormwater could drain away.
Horticulture New Zealand’s regional representative, Chelsea Donnelly, said there had been no reports so far of any damage to crops.
Two farms near Ashburton contacted by RNZ said the severe hail storms did not reach them.
MetService had said that very heavy rain can cause surface and/or flash flooding about streams, gullies and urban areas.
Poor visibility and surface flooding could make driving difficult, and large hail had the capacity to “cause significant damage to crops, orchards, vines, glasshouses and vehicles”.
“Should severe weather approach or if you feel threatened, take shelter immediately.”
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Source: Radio New Zealand
Housing First Ōtautahi manager Nicola Fleming. Rachel Graham
A new outreach service for homeless people in Christchurch encountered an 87-year-old woman living on the streets in its first week of operation.
Housing First Ōtautahi has started a new rapid response, trying to ensure people who have just started living on the streets don’t end up there long term.
Its primary focus is people who have been homeless for some time, and was set up using funding from the government in September 2025.
Manager Nicola Fleming said Housing First Ōtautahi was one of a number of organisations which received part of the $10 million in funding, and needed to make us of it by June 2026.
She said their normal criteria was people that had been homeless for at least 12 months and self-referred to them for help.
“So the people covered by the outreach rapid response group will take everyone who doesn’t fit in there. To try and prevent them coming into Housing First’s criteria. If they have just been made homeless, what does that look like, how did they get there, what can we do to help?”
Fleming said the team was made up of five outreach workers, a housing locator, and two nurses.
The outreach workers and nurses head out on to the street each day at 7am to talk to people they believe could be homeless. They speak to them about what they need and ensure they know about services available.
In their first week on the streets, the team encountered 19 people newly on the streets, including an 87-year-old woman, a 70 year old, and a 17 year old.
She said they are increasingly seeing older people living on the streets, and a variety of reasons why they end up homeless.
“They have been living with family, and then family have moved away or gone into hospital. Or there has been trauma with some kind of issue in the family, or people passing away and they haven’t known where to go.
“Sometimes they don’t want to live in a rest home, or they are still using or an addict and don’t want to go into a rest home. But where do they go?
“There are massive gaps which leaves people walking around Ōtautahi who are stuck because they just can’t find stable housing but also don’t want to go to a rest home or a mental health facility. So where can they go?”
Fleming said there was also a growing issue of people who leave hospital or jail with no proper arrangements for where they will live.
“People just out of jail dumped out on the street. We have to do better.”
Fleming said the new service will give them a much better idea of how many people are homeless in Christchurch, as it can be a hidden problem and hard to pin numbers down.
It will, however, leave them with the ongoing issue of where to house people they know are in need.
“Where is the housing? It’s horrible to build up someone’s expectations up – oh I’m in this service, I heard it’s really great but then I have to sit here and wait for housing, when is that going to happen?
“And the truth is, we just don’t know.”
Housing First Ōtautahi currently supports about 250 formerly homeless people in housing, and has about another 100 on its waitlist.
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Source: Radio New Zealand
Māngere Bridge. RNZ / Dan Cook
Three fishermen rescued on Friday night after their boat started taking on water did “everything right”, police say.
The trio embarked into Manukau Harbour from the Māngere Bridge boat ramp, and made it two kilometres off Puketutu Island when their vessel sank.
Unsure where they were, they called police just after midnight and were spotted by the police Eagle helicopter and taken aboard a rescue hovercraft at around 1.30am this morning.
Sergeant Jesse Jenden of the Auckland Police Maritime Unit said: “We’re happy these fishermen did all the right things when heading out on the water.
“Anything can happen and you really need to be prepared for that.
“They ticked all the boxes by having waterproof communication devices, were wearing life jackets, listened to the instructions from the rescuers and kept hold of some chilly bins for extra floatation if needed.”
Once back on shore, family members said the fishermen were in “good spirits”.
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Source: Radio New Zealand
Follow all the cricket action, as the fourth in the five-test series between archrivals Australia and England continues at the MCG in Melbourne.
Australia swept to an 82-run win in the third Ashes test at Adelaide Oval to retain the urn with two matches to spare.
After eight-wicket defeats in Perth and Brisbane, England have lost the Ashes in three matches for the fourth consecutive tour, while losing 16 of their last 18 tests in Australia.
First ball is scheduled for 12.30pm NZT.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Philip Brown
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Source: Radio New Zealand
Christchurch will welcome 2025 with live music and fireworks. AFP / MATIAS DELACROIX
A rundown on some of the biggest public events to ring in 2026 – and where to catch the best fireworks displays.
A fireworks display launched at the stroke of midnight from a barge moored in the channel between Paihia and Russell will be seen in the skies at midnight.
The best viewing areas include Paihia Wharf and Maiki Hill lookout, and along the town’s waterfront. The fireworks can also be seen from Waitangi, Ōpua and Russell.
Auckland’s Sky Tower will be the fireworks focus on New Year’s Eve. Screenshot
New Year’s Eve celebrations in the city centre will include a collection of ‘special moments’ that will shine on the Sky Tower from 9pm, leading up to the midnight fireworks display from the tower. Auckland Harbour Bridge will also come to life from 9pm with Vector Lights, with promises of a “brand-new dynamic light and sound show”, starting in the minutes before midnight.
Many roads in the central city and Wynyard Quarter will be reserved for pedestrians from 10pm on 31 December to 1am on 1 January. Auckland Council says nearby maunga – Maungawhau / Mt Eden, Maungauika / North Head and Takarunga / Mt Victoria – will remain open until after midnight with security in place. Buses and ferries will be running on a Saturday timetable, with extra buses operating after midnight.
TVNZ will broadcast the countdown and NYE midnight moment live on TVNZ 1 and 2.
This annual council-run extravaganza at the Soundshell promises an “unforgettable night of music, community, and fireworks”.
The celebrations kick off at 7pm with live music, and there will be two fireworks displays – an early show at 9:45pm for the young ones and the main event at midnight.
Fireworks will be launched from a barge on the lake as part of Taupō’s annual Big Bang event, with the main show at midnight and a Mini Bang fireworks event at 9.30pm. There will also be family-friendly activities and entertainment, with Roberts Street closed from 7am on 31 December to 2am on 1 January 2026.
The Festival of Lights in New Plymouth © Charlotte Curd
The Festival of Lights at Pukekura Park runs all summer, and this free council event is wheelchair accessible and very family-friendly – including an 8pm “countdown to midnight”. From 8.30pm live music and DJs take to two stages around the park in the run-up to midnight.
The council’s free New Year’s Eve event kicks off in The Square from 5pm, with live music, as well as bouncy castles, face painting and other activities. There will be fireworks displays at 9.30pm and midnight.
Head to Wairepo Lagoon on the capital’s waterfront for a free council-run New Year’s Eve party. It will start at 3pm with food trucks opening at Odlin’s Plaza, before the live music kicks off at 8pm with Orchestra Wellington taking the stage at 10 pm until midnight.
Celebrations will also include a kids’ countdown and fireworks at 9.30pm and the midnight fireworks display to welcome 2026,
Last year’s event in Picton. Supplied to LDR
Thousands head to the Picton foreshore every New Year’s for the Marlborough District Council event, with free performances and fireworks. From 6.30pm there’ll be bands and kids’ entertainers, before the midnight fireworks display.
Head to 1903 Square at the top of Trafalgar Street from 6pm for Nelson’s New Year’s Eve Countdown, with kids activities, bands, DJs, a kids countdown at 9pm and fireworks at midnight.
Christchurch’s free NYE party in North Hagley Park is being headlined by Kora on the last night of the year, backed up by Kiwi talents Dillastrate, Brad Staley and DJ Sambora.
Organisers are also promising an ‘epic’ fireworks display at midnight, but make sure you are there early – entry into the event will close at 11.45pm.
Last year’s fireworks in Timaru. Robert Smith/RNZ
The annual Caroline Bay Carnival in Timaru will feature live music from 7pm, as well as the usual games and rides operating into the New Year, with the fireworks display down on the beach at midnight.
The waterfront in New Zealand’s tourism capital is a beautiful setting for the council-run New Year celebrations. Kicking off at 2pm, the event includes live bands, DJs, a family-friendly vibe and fireworks from the lake to usher in 2025.
The Golden Block on George Street in central Dunedin will be alive with family-friendly entertainment, face painting, workshops, and more from 5pm. A Kids’ Countdown with confetti cannons kicks off at 8pm, followed by a short parade leading families down to the Octagon accompanied by live musicians.
Live music will be played in the Octagon after that, and while there will be no fireworks display in Dunedin again this year, there will be light installations in
the Upper Octagon and the countdown at midnight will be accompanied by a piper.
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Source: Radio New Zealand
Darren Teague and his boat that capsized on the Raglan Bar on 1 November. Supplied
A father, his two kids, and a friend were flung into treacherous waters when their boat capsized on a notorious west coast sandbar last month.
Maritime safety experts say it shows that even when boaties do everything right, things can still go wrong.
Reporter Mary Argue speaks to the skipper, credited with saving multiple lives that day.
Sunrise is still hours away when Darren Teague wakes his kids.
The 12 -and 14-year-old are bundled into the car, along with one of his mates, and they hit the road heading west from Waikato, his late-model fishing boat in tow.
They roll into Raglan and as daylight breaks on 1 November, launch the game fisher with Teague at the helm.
In a little over four hours’ time, all four will be in the water – their boat upside down in the surge and wash of the infamous Raglan Bar.
“I remember looking at just two waves standing up in front of me,” Teague says.
“[It was] like trying to put your seatbelt on halfway through a car crash. I couldn’t have done anything at the time.
“I can’t emphasise how fast it happened. It was seconds.”
Weeks later, he can clearly recall the panic on his kids’ faces.
According to Maritime NZ, bars are the most dangerous feature on New Zealand’s coast – costing five people their lives in 2024, and necessitating the rescue of more than twice as many.
The build up of sand at the entrance to a harbour, or river, can dramatically reduce the depth of the water and increase the height of waves – especially at low tide.
The Raglan Bar is one of about 100 in the country, and Teague, a keen fisherman – mostly in the Gulf and off the east coast of the North Island – is the first to say he’s no Raglan boatie.
But the Morrinsville father isn’t a novice either. He’s had a couple of boats and his fair share of dingies, and runabouts.
Over the years he’s made a point of ticking off as many boating courses as he could – skippers, radio, and one on bar crossings.
Teague checked the weather before embarking on his fourth Raglan outing. Conditions were pretty good, but as the boat approached the edge of the harbour, he pocketed his personal locator beacon (PLB), just in case.
“The bar was good at that stage,” he recalls, noting another boat was also biding its time for a break in the waves.
Both of them crossed without issue, and Teague and his crew headed to deeper water.
“We were looking forward to a good day’s fishing,” he says, but what began well, didn’t last.
“There was just a big swell coming through, and every now and again I get seasick … that day was just particularly bad, I started spewing.”
He says when the kids started feeling crook too, they called it. With a dozen snapper on board – “a few good feeds, more than enough” – the day’s fishing had wrapped before 10am, hours ahead of schedule.
Darren Teague and his boat that capsized on the Raglan Bar on 1 November. Supplied
Teague says the bar was rougher than anticipated as they headed to the harbour, but heard two boats confirm a successful crossing over the radio.
His locator beacon went back in his pocket and a crossing report was logged with Coastguard.
“I thought, ‘People are going in, it’s obviously okay.’ In hindsight, I probably should have sat there and watched it a bit longer.
“[But given] how I was feeling at the time, I was just bee-lining it back in.
“So, I just carried on, went over the bar, which was fine – my friend was standing behind me spotting waves out the back – and it was in the joggle where we came unstuck.”
The crew hit the frothing water on the harbour-side of the bar, and within seconds it was chaos, with two waves bearing down, Teague says there was nowhere to go, but directly into them.
The boat fell into a trough, spinning sideways as it nose-dived and waves crashed over the windscreen and side of the boat.
“One of them came straight over the side and just washed the kids straight out into the water – all in one hit.
“It was pretty surreal, but I knew it was happening and I looked at them and I could see the panic.”
Within seconds the boat had rolled.
“I only had enough time to tell them – they were trying to scramble back on the boat – and I just said, ‘Get out of it,’ and then I ripped it [the motor] out of gear.”
He tried to grab his mate, who’d become trapped in the back corner of the boat, and then it all went quiet.
At 10:12am, Coastguard Raglan was alerted to a report of a capsized boat on the Raglan Bar. The first rescue jetski hit the water within 10 minutes, followed by a second jetski and a rescue boat.
Around the same time, two senior Raglan lifeguards – who’d just arrived at the club for patrol – got a call about an overturned vessel.
A couple of minutes later, their Inflatable Rescue Boat (IRB) was on the water speeding towards the bar.
Darren Teague and his boat that capsized on the Raglan Bar on 1 November. Supplied
The underwater calm didn’t last long.
As he came to the surface, Teague clocked his kids but not his friend.
He tried desperately to get back under the boat, but couldn’t, and admits feeling a huge sense of relief when his mate finally popped up.
However, he was without a lifejacket – he’d been forced to unclip it to get out.
Teague grabbed the children and the four of them clung to the hull of the upturned boat.
“I’ve said it to a few people, but it turns out there’s not too much to hold on to on the bottom side of a boat … we ended up back in the water.”
A floating squab became their refuge, and it was around this time that his locator beacon floated out of his pocket – he grabbed it.
“I was trying to hold on to the kids – I didn’t want to let them go – I couldn’t set it off [immediately] but a boat had gone past us then, and I knew that they were going to radio for help.”
In between the onslaught of waves and reassuring the children, Teague managed to set the beacon off.
“I could see it flashing, it was going and then it was just a waiting game, I knew that people would be coming.”
Raglan Surf Lifesaving director, Fletcher Harnish had launched a jetski upon hearing about the distressed vessel and was in hot pursuit of his colleagues in the rescue boat.
Boaties inside the harbour directed the rescuers to where the stricken boat was last seen.
The Coastguard and surf lifesavers linked up and just beyond the surf zone, they saw them – four people and a capsized boat.
“The two children were picked up and put into the IRB and the adults on the back of the Coastguard jetskis,” Harnish says.
Back on shore the four patients were assessed by Hato Hone St John.
“They were in quite a good position, they’d done everything right. They were calm, just a little bit cold and shaken up.”
Coastguard Raglan volunteer and jetski Master, Harry Series agrees – Teague and his crew “did everything right” – logging a bar crossing trip report with Coastguard, wearing lifejackets, and activating their personal locator beacon.
“But unfortunately things can still go wrong,” he says.
Maritime NZ’s principal advisor recreational craft Matt Wood has investigated many fatal incidents and knows the “fine line between fatal and non-fatal”.
He’s unequivocal in his assessment.
“Darren’s actions have saved the lives of his children, his friend and himself. Many people don’t survive these things, and he has, as the result of the preparation and things he did.”
Wood says the majority of boaties get into trouble and die close to shore, with bars particularly deadly.
“They’re extremely hazardous and there’s a lot you need to do to cross safely – you need to make sure your boat’s seaworthy, and you’ve got the right safety equipment and knowledge.
“Be sure before you leave the shore.”
He says Teague did that.
He’d done a bar crossing course, his boat was fit-for-purpose, and maintained. He also had the right safety equipment, two forms of satellite-based emergency beacons – one on him and one on the boat – and the crew was wearing correctly fitted lifejackets, Wood says.
Despite that, things can still go pear-shaped.
Darren Teague and his boat that capsized on the Raglan Bar on 1 November. Supplied
Teague’s driver to get back to shore – seasickness – played a role in the accident, Wood says, but says once things had started to unravel and they were in the water, Teague made decisions that made a difference.
“They’ve got the ability to call for help and they stuck to the boat as long as they could – this increases your chances of being found and survival.
“Once they were separated from the boat they found some floating squabs. They huddled, he calmed the kids, they didn’t panic, which is just fantastic actions that he took.
“Undoubtedly, if he hadn’t done those things … I think this would have ended differently.”
Speaking to RNZ about that day, weeks later, isn’t easy.
“I’m not really one to do this,” Teague says, “but if I can help someone else, I will”.
The capsize hasn’t put him off fishing – he’s been out since and plans to get another boat – but it’s in the back of his mind, and his advice for others is simple.
Take a personal locator beacon, wear a lifejacket and do up the crutch strap (because “hanging in the water for over half-an-hour by your neck” is pretty uncomfortable). Be aware of your surroundings.
“I don’t really know how I would have done it different today, other than manage the time of the tide when I was coming in.
“It was just one of those things eh, you run off the road in a car too, it was just an accident. It was lucky we had everything in place, I guess, to get away with it.”
*Information on how to stay safe in the water can be found on the Maritime NZ and Coastguard websites, which also includes a range of boating courses.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand