Six people have escaped serious injury after the waka ama they were in was swamped by a wave, tossing them from the boat, then submerged on Whanganui River yesterday evening.
Coastguard Wanganui volunteers received an emergency call out after police were notified of the group in the water shortly after 5.30pm.
Five Whanganui Rescue volunteers were able to help bring them back to land after they'd been in the water for about 30 minutes.
In a statement last night, Coastguard New Zealand said the six paddlers were coming back over the bar when they were "swamped by a wave from behind".
They were about 500 metres from shore when the waka became submerged. The group were able to stay together by holding onto the submerged waka.
"It was already dark when our pagers went off, so we knew we had to get out there quickly," Coastguard Wanganui president Garry Hawkins said.
Three of the paddlers were wearing headlamps, which helped rescuers see where they were in the water.
"On arrival they quickly got to work pulling everyone on board Wanganui Rescue and checking everyone was OK," Mr Hawkins said.
"Two of the paddlers were showing signs of hypothermia. I’d say they’d been in the water for around 30 minutes when we got to them. The water is about 14 degrees at the moment so they were lucky they weren’t in there for any longer."
All six paddlers were taken to hospital but have since been discharged.
"We could have all been facing a very different outcome," Mr Hawkins said.
"Thankfully we're not and six people are safe and home with their families."
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