The Gisborne arm of the Rapid Relief Team – a global group founded by Plymouth Brethren Christian Church – offered $20,000 to pay for a much-needed new set of Night Vision Goggles for the Trust Tairāwhiti Eastland Rescue Helicopter service.

“When the quote came back the cost of the NVGs was actually $27,000 so we thought ‘let’s just do it’,” says Gisborne RRT lead Clarke Judd.

“They are absolutely essential for the team’s night-flying so we were absolutely happy to do that.”

A long wait-list means the new white phosphor NVGs won’t arrive until mid-2026, when they’ll be added to the team’s current stock of two older green sets and another of the more modern white.

When they do, however, they’ll be invaluable . . . as they magnify ambient light thousands of times they are vital for medical and search missions carried out under cover of darkness.

“It is a long time to wait and that’s why it was so important to get the team’s order in now,” says EHRT chair Ian Parker.

“As well as offering the most up-do-date technology, the new NVGs will provide cover when other sets are sent away for maintenance and calibration checks so are critical to the crew, and we’re thankful to the Rapid Relief Team for funding them.”

Clarke Judd has led Gisborne RRT for over a decade and is no stranger to the Eastland Rescue Helicopter service.

In 2019 he, on behalf of RRT, gifted EHRT $10,000 to fund the syringe injector and fluid warmer that are important parts of the team’s on-board kit.

And 16 years before that he was himself on board after suffering serious burns when, while working on a friend’s farm, a drum blew up in his face.

“They managed to drive me to Gisborne Hospital but I had to be transferred to Waikato,” he says.

“The team were worried that the altitude could affect my breathing if I’d inhaled chemicals so they flew as low as they could. I remember seeing the forestry workers on the hills below, and watching all the little cars on the roads.”

The then-15-year-old’s treatment at Waikato Hospital’s burn unit was, he says, a great success.

“So I really know what it means to have access to the rescue helicopter service and how important that is.”

Clarke says donations like that made to EHRT are funded by Kiwi businesses linked to the Brethren Church.

“We are an international organisation but donations from New Zealand businesses go to New Zealand causes,” he says.

“We thought it was high time we again did something for the Eastland Rescue Helicopter so were delighted to fund the Night Vision Goggles that are so critical to the team’s work in our region.”

CAPTION: NIGHT SKIES: Rapid Relief Team Gisborne team leader Clark Judd (left), second-in-command Barker Vigis (centre) and Eastland Helicopter Rescue Trust chair Ian Parker look forward to the arrival of the new Night Vision Goggles sponsored by RRT.