REST NZRT4

09/10/2026

RT4 are looking forward to being part of this awesome event. 💪

👋 A warm welcome to Response Teams from across the North Island!

New Zealand Response Teams - NZRT from across the North Island are travelling to Auckland today take part in Exercise Tri-Force | Mahi Ngātahi, a large-scale emergency response exercise.

🌧️ Based around a severe weather emergency, the exercise will give teams the chance to practice responding to challenges such as flooding, landslides and damaged infrastructure.

🤝 Exercises like this give teams a great opportunity to train together, strengthen their skills, and be prepared to support communities during a real emergency.

As teams arrive and take part this weekend, you may notice more Response Team vehicles and personnel travelling around the region. It’s all part of the planned exercise, so there’s no need for concern.

📸 We’ll be sharing more from behind the scenes throughout the weekend, so follow along to see the teams in action!

🤝 Safe travels to everyone making their way to Tāmaki Makaurau, and all the best to all the teams taking part!

01/10/2026

The fun was ours, but we definitely didn’t get there alone! ❤️🖤

A weekend like this doesn’t happen without a lot of people behind the scenes supporting our team.

A huge thank you to Palmerston North City Council, and especially our team owner/manager, for the ongoing support that allows NZRT4 to train, develop and be there when our communities need us.

Thank you to Civil Defence Manawatū Whanganui for your continued support and encouragement of our team.

To the families, partners and friends of our members — thank you for putting up with the training, weekends away, late nights and everything that comes with volunteering. Your support makes it possible for our members to give their time and energy to the team.

A massive thank you to the New Zealand Response Teams - NZRT accreditation teams for your time, guidance and feedback throughout the weekend. We learnt plenty, were challenged plenty, and came away better for it.

And to all the other NZRT teams we’ve trained
alongside, learnt from and shared plenty of laughs with — thank you. We’re lucky to be part of such a supportive network. A special shoutout to NZ-RT3 for the message of support before the weekend — it didn’t go unnoticed! ❤️

And finally the NZRT4 crew the commitment, hard work, humour and willingness to keep learning is what makes this team what it is.

Accreditation might be over, but the learning never stops. 💪

30/09/2026

And just like that our Re-Accreditation weekend is wrapped up. The team are still buzzing about all the fun they had, so we thought it was only fair to share some of the fun with you to!
There’s stacks of Thank You’s which we will cover in another post, but for now - Shout Out to our Team Manager who took the role of paparazzi for the day and captured the epic shots!

22/09/2026

It feels like just yesterday that RT4 held our last recruitment. 🪢
RT4 is proud to present our operational support team members with their well deserved responder badges.

These responder badges are not just a label; they are a representation of the time and effort these people have dedicated to attend courses, develop their skills, and attend weekly trainings. Awesome work team!

Kia ora!

15/09/2026

NZRT4 had an awesome day with Rangitikei Civil Defence Response Team on a chainsaw course over the weekend. 💪

Happy to report everyone came home with all limbs in tact!

08/09/2026

RT4 is crossing the 't's' and dotting the 'i's' in our run up to accreditation. 🏃‍♀️

We reviewed our freshly updated hazard register and SOPS documents last night; a special shout out to Zarra Houpapa, (one of our fantastic EMO's) and all of the REST team members who have poured countless hours into the background running of the team.

Your effort behind the scenes makes us stronger as a team. Ngā mihi. ❤️🖤

02/09/2026

It's September, and we are busy-busy-busy! 🐝

We played with some ropes this week to train our steep angle rope skills.
We set up a system for lowering our team with the stretcher; once the patient was packaged, this system was used to help them back up the slope. This skill is a safe option if the ground is loose, slippery, or too steep to safely get back to the top.

02/09/2026

This leadership course was invaluable in upskilling two of RT4's team leaders. ❤️🖤

18/08/2026

With accreditation coming in hot, RT4 has been practicing our USAR skills. ⛑️
We conducted a hasty recon, occupancy interviews, line and hail search, and extraction of patients at our local rubble pile.

Thank you to our volunteer patients who provided great feedback. 💪

11/08/2026

Team member spotlight! ✨🐕‍🦺✨

Georgia, our Jill-of-all-trades, has been visiting local schools lately with her dog Noodle, to share her picture book, 'What's my job?'

Georgia's book playfully explores the life of her working SAR dog. With a name like Noodle, she totally has main character energy! ✨✨🐶