The sand dunes of Medlands beach on Aotea, Great Barrier Island following Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Will Trafford
Two boys have been critically injured after being buried by a sand dune on Aotea, Great Barrier Island during a family picnic Sunday.
Emergency services were alerted to the incident at Medlands beach on the island's east coast at around 4:30 pm.
On arrival Johnny Stanton a pilot from the Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter said he could see two groups of people working on saving the boys.
“Our critical care team jumped out and went straight over to them while we went to the nearby [Medlands] campsite and then brought more gear down.” Stanton said Monday.
Around 50 people on the beach were helping, including paramedics, police, volunteer firefighters and staff from the local medical centre, he said.
A vehicle was reportedly used to pull one of the boys out from under the sand.
The pair, one a 14-year-old teenager and the other who was younger both attend Kaitoke school.
They were airlifted by the Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter to Starship in critical condition.
"Our thoughts are with the boys and their families during this challenging time," a spokesperson from the rescue helicopter service said.
Local Board Chair Izzy Fordham expressed her sadness surrounding the event, describing it as a 'horrid time' to NZME.
The boys were reportedly digging tunnels in the dunes.
High seas from Cyclone Gabrielle in February eroded around a metre of the sand banks on Medlands beach, also taking out the vegetation that holds them together.
Deep cuts into the dunes themselves were carved out as far back as 10 to 15 metres in the storm.
Low-lying homes on Sandhills road were flooded when waters from Gabrielle breached the dunes as the storm descended the east coast of the North Island before ultimately making landfall and wreaking havoc in the Hawke's Bay.
