It’s a bit of a hardy annual when the Summer Concert’s on but Taupō harbourmaster Jamie Grant is reminding boaties that the Waikato River from the southern end of the Nukuhau Marina to the Control Gates Bridge is a restricted area.
Vessels are not permitted to anchor or tie up to the bank without authorisation.
And the section from the Control Gates Bridge to 270m upstream is definitely off limits (the section beyond the first set of debris booms, marked by yellow buoys.
Harbourmaster staff would be monitoring the restriction during events at Riverside Park, Grant said.
Enforcement had come about within the last few years because the office didn’t want to see any further promotion of the drinking and boating that had been happening there.
“We saw some pretty horrific things… a couple of people almost got run over while they were swimming and there's boats everywhere… we copped a lot of abuse for no reason just for making sure everyone's okay.”
In the past he said harbour staff had even had to pull a person off the last debris boom before the control gates because they went for a swim and got caught in the current.
With the current rain and the lake already close to maximum capacity, Grant said he expected Mercury would be looking to have the flow on full.
“Which at 300 odd cumecs, or 300 cubic metres a second, is a lot to deal with.”
As well as not being a particularly safe place for boaties, Grant said during the times he and his staff had monitored the area, the sound was actually not that good.
“It depends on which way the wind blows, whether you can hear it properly.”
He joked a better position might to try to get on top of Boom Boom.
