WE LOVE SAFETY
It was safety audit time for us in Aug this year. A time to reflect, plan and prepare, investigate and improve. This time of year is a busy one, holding a high standard for safety is at the top of our core goals with running our business. Not only do we want to reach the standard required, but also exceed it.
This year marks our 9th season of operations and we again held our audit certification with no non-conformities to contend with. The process was a positive one of ensuring legislation was followed as well ensuring the upmost best for our customers and staff. We were left with time to exceed standards and look for new initiatives, here are a couple we would love to share with you!
The safety of the tourism industry has come a long way over the last 9 years that we’ve been immersed inside it, that said, we can always see new ways to improve and strengthen our safety position.
One of the things we are strengthening now is our emergency response, in particular our first aid training around our specific “what if” events so we could be in the best position possible if someone was injured.
We require all our staff to hold the highest first aid certificate available in New Zealand being PHEC, as well we took it upon ourselves to partner up with a registered medical practice and their incredible critical care paramedic to give us private, specific and detailed first aid training towards these specific “what if” events, so we can best prepare for our customers and staff.
We are very aware if someone was to become injured in the canyon, commercially or recreationally the waiting time for paramedics and rescue can be lengthy being in remote and difficult to access locations, leaving us with a vulnerable gap to fill. This training is totally aimed around our business and operations and provides intimate details on what we should do along side recommended equipment, a huge step over the generic normal first aid courses.
The next step was to meet with our local heli rescue operator and local police and ensure they had up to date maps, understood our operations and to have a conversation about what a rescue might look like in each of our operational sites, so if any event was to occur this was an efficient and organised scenario. A positive step from this meeting was communications and how VHF radios would be an incredible asset to our company in being able to directly communicate with rescue services if ever needed.
These takeaways are so important to growing and evolvi
ng safety in our company and driving more initiatives, aiming over and above, these conversations are so valuable and necessary.
We are so excited about canyoning, about safety and about the next great idea to improving and growing as an adventure operator who holds safety at the top of their values!
From Julz and Ross
