Hazel Bentham in her nurse’s uniform
In 1935, not long after the Piha surf club was established, a young nurse called Hazel Bentham got into trouble while swimming with a lilo at neighbouring Karekare beach.
Pulled far out to sea by a rip, she clung to her lilo while frantic attempts to reach her were made by the Piha life savers, who had raced over from Piha bringing a line and reel. But even their best swimmers could not quite make it out to Hazel.
Then Wally Badham, a qualified pilot and also one of the family running Winchelsea House Boarding House, had the bright idea of ringing Hobsonville Air Base to see if a float plane might be able to brought to the Coast to reach Hazel.
And that’s just what happened, the miraculous rescue being performed by Sidney Wallingford using a Fairey 3F bi plane.
The story was recently (Jan/Feb 2013) retold in Metro magazine by Charles Hamlin. You can read it here.