'Heroic' off-duty Coastguard rescuer saves husband, wife

(File/Coastguard)
(File/Coastguard)

An off-duty Coastguard operations manager is being hailed a hero after rescuing a husband and wife from rough seas off the coast of an east Auckland beach.

Ray Burge was driving past a bay near Maraetai with his family when he noticed a man in the water frantically waving his arms.

He pulled over and ran down to the beach to find three children under the age of 10 who said the man in the water was their father and that he needed help.

At that point Mr Burge and his family went in to rescue mode.

A call was made to the Coastguard operations centre and Mr Burge's 14-year-old daughter helped to feed back information while Ray made the decision to attempt a rescue.

 "I said 'I'm going in, get a rescue boat here' whatever resources they could. Then I swam out to the guy which was quite challenging, the conditions were pretty rough."

"Just before I got there he dropped below the surface two or three times. I managed to get my arm underneath him, got his chin out and then it took a little while but I managed to get him back to shore.

But the rescue didn't stop there. The family soon realised the man had only entered the water to save his wife who was then spotted around 400m from shore.

Fortunately the local Coastguard arrived very quickly and were able to help with the rescue.

"Probably within a minute or so of them being on scene they had spotted her, recovered her and took her back to Maraetai Beach Boating Club."

Mr Burge's wife then took the couple's children to meet their mother while Mr Burge and another Coastguard employee took the man to meet an ambulance.

"He was pretty cold, said he had a headache. It was really unknown as to how long he had been in the water."

Auckland Maritime Police Senior Constable Garry Larsen is giving high praise to Mr Burge.

"Being at the right place at the right time and actually having the experience and knowledge to know what was happening and [how to] respond was pretty heroic."

"It could have ended up a lot worse if this person wasn't on scene and hadn't done the right things like calling us, us responding with the Westpac rescue helicopter. That person may have not survived."

And Mr Burge agrees that it could have been a very different outcome.

"The stars were aligned with him that day because I caught him out of the corner of my eye. I was able to get him and then was able to establish that someone else was missing and both of them were recovered."

"It should not be under-estimated what my family did, what my daughter did on the phone, what my wife did on the phone, what my son did  he's 12-years-old  He was helping looking after the kids."

What was meant to be a nice Sunday drive along the coast quickly turned into an intense rescue mission; putting a heroic spin on spending the afternoon with the family.

Newshub.