1 December 2023 – Coastguard and Taupō community gathered this week to bless and commemorate the launching of the new Mercury Rescue 2 boat.

 

Mercury is proud to support Coastguard Lake Taupō, a Volunteer Search and Rescue organisation, that returns on average 220 people home safely each year from our awa and lakes in the Waikato region.

 

Mercury’s GM Sustainability, Lucie Drummond said, “As an organisation operating in the Taupō and broader Waikato area, Mercury seeks to play our part in supporting those groups and people that help keep those communities safe in and around the magnificent awa and lakes”.

 

The event in Taupō brought together Coastguard representatives, tangata whenua, Mercury employees and Taupō community members to celebrate the longstanding 15-year partnership.

 

The vessel was blessed by Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Te Urunga and Ngāti Tutetawha.

 

Coastguard Lake Taupō volunteers committed close to 4,000 hours last year to their local community both on and off the water. They are highly skilled and trained to respond to a variety of incidents on the water so need the right tools and equipment to do the mahi.

 

Coastguard Lake Taupō President, Mark Fletcher said “the new vessel was vital to ensuring the safety of our people over the summer period. The unit worked hard to find a vessel of certain capability to support the uniqueness of our recent rescues such as shallow water manouvering, transportation of police dive squads and more”.