Third lifeguard season the best yet for Ngaio

Vicki Waterhouse | 19th April 2009

Despite another season of plunging into the cold ocean time and time again, Ngaio Ackerman's passion for surf lifesaving has not let up.

The 16-year-old has completed her third season at Papamoa Surf Lifesaving Club and says it just gets better.

"It was actually a really good summer. There was not that bad weather and the surf was pretty good," the volunteer lifeguard said.

The Tauranga Girls' College student pulled out "a couple" of people in trouble in the water and honed her first- aid skills on injured beach-goers over the summer. "It was a whole lot of fun," she said.

"It's just like one big family. We're all good friends and we all get along really well - it makes it enjoyable."

Ngaio has done 42 hours of volunteer work as a lifeguard and she's happy to do it for free because she loves it.

It also gives her a chance to practise first aid skills - she wants to become a doctor or a dentist in the future.

Ngaio originally got into surf lifesaving after leaving boarding school in Cambridge and changing to Tauranga halfway through Year 9.

A change of scenery inspired her to take up something new, and as she already had a first aid certificate she thought it was a logical choice.

Ngaio plans on returning to Papamoa beach for the 2009-10 season to patrol as a volunteer.