Jet-skier dies

People on the water’s edge desperately waved and yelled to get the attention of jet-skiers to help a man who drowned on Saturday afternoon. The man was caught in swirling water after falling from his jet-ski in Canterbury’s Waimakariri River. Eventually the man was pulled to the riverside but he could not be revived.

Teacher drowns

Christchurch Boys’ High School physical education teacher Samuel Zarifeh died after falling from a raft into a West Coast river on Saturday. The 27-year-old was on a private rafting trip with a group of teachers from the school when their raft overturned on the Landsborough River, inland from Haast. Zarifeh’s body was located about 45 kilometres downstream.

Ute in fatal roll

Two men died after a ute rolled about 100 metres down a steep bank on remote Taranaki farmland. The accident happened on Saturday afternoon on a farm in Kohuratahi, in the Whangamomona Valley, about 76 kilometres inland from Stratford. Sergeant Lincoln Mccrea said it appeared that the driver of the 4WD ute tried to navigate the vehicle along a ridge but the edge crumbled away, causing it to roll. The men, both from the east Taranaki area and aged in their 30s, were understood to have possibly been out pig-hunting at the time. Mccrea said he understood one of the men worked on the farm where the accident happened and his friend was visiting him for the day.

Water crisis

A water crisis in the Waikato town of Morrinsville developed after a mains pipe at the town’s reservoir developed a major leak on Saturday. Workers were working to fix the leak while the 6000 residents were asked to not shower, wash clothes or flush loos ‘‘unless necessary’’, and to totally stop using water outdoors, especially for gardens and filling pools. However, it was possible the town’s water supply could run dry.