The owner of a jet ski found washed up on Peka Peka beach is safe and well in Wanganui.
Senior Sergeant Alisdair Macmillan, Kapiti Police, said a beach walker found the damaged Kawasaki jet ski about 9am. With no immediate sign of a rider, the walker contacted police.
A fixed wing aircraft from Paraparaumu Airport, the Kapiti Coastguard launch, and police in a four-wheel drive vehicles spent nearly three hours combing the search zone until the mystery was solved.
Police checked the jet ski’s engine number with a Kawasaki service and sales centre which was able to pinpoint a Wanganui reference. A phone call revealed the jet ski’s owner was alive – he had become separated from the machine while crossing the Wanganui River bar last week.
Over the next few days, tides washed the jet ski south down the coast. “We’re pleased everything turned out for the best,” Senior Sergeant Macmillan says.
Updated 10th March 2009