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Debbie Jamieson / Stuff
A woman who was swept downstream while swimming in the fast-running Kawarau River is reunited with her friends after being searched by ambulance personnel.
A woman was airlifted from a rock in an Otago River after being washed several hundred meters downstream when she had difficulty swimming.
Emergency services were called around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday after the woman found herself in trouble in the Kawarau River on Rafters Rd, near Gibbston east of Queenstown.
Police and a search and rescue team launched a rescue operation and dispatched a helicopter.
Debbie Jamieson / Stuff
The helicopter involved in the rescue lands after rescuing the woman.
The woman was found on the rock shortly after and airlifted to safety, a police spokeswoman said.
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Sergeant Matt Hargreaves said the woman was swimming with four friends when the current carried her away.
They initially believed they were looking for two people, before finding the woman several hundred meters from where the group had been swimming.
Debbie Jamieson / Stuff
A warning sign on the Kawarau River, near where the woman was washed downstream.
The foreign woman was unhurt, but was examined by St. John’s paramedics on the spot.
Hargreaves said the Kawarau was a popular fast-moving river with rafters and was not recommended for swimming.
Debbie Jamieson / Stuff
The Kawarau River, on Rafters Road, Gibbston, near Queenstown.
