On Wednesday, 10 December, Coastguard New Zealand will take a number of its phone lines temporarily offline from midday to carry out a short upgrade to its communications systems. The work is expected to take around 20 minutes.
Throughout that window, both Coastguard's direct landlines and the widely used *500 number will be unavailable. Boaties needing to make contact during this time are asked to call 0800 BOATIE (0800 262 843) or reach out via VHF. As always, anyone facing an urgent on-water emergency should dial 111.
The upgrade forms part of Coastguard's continuing work to keep its services reliable and easy to reach, particularly heading into the busy summer boating season. Coastguard has asked boaties to take note of the alternative contact details ahead of the brief outage on Wednesday, and has thanked everyone for their understanding while the work is carried out.
