Heart-stopping moment
When Jessica Whyte woke to the news her son had been found floating in the sea, it felt like her heart went still.
She did not feel it beat again until she saw the 18-month-old at the campground reception area.
He was purple, cold and looked smaller than usual.
Local fisherman Gus Hutt found Malachi floating in the sea on October 26. Hutt almost mistook him for a doll.
‘‘His face looked like porcelain with his short hair wetted down,’’ Hutt told the Whakatane Beacon, ‘‘but then he let out a little squeak and I thought: oh God, this is a baby and it’s alive.
‘‘He was floating at a steady pace. If I hadn’t been there or if I had just been a minute later, I wouldn’t have seen him.’’
Adding to the fortune was Hutt’s chance choice of fishing location 100 metres away from his usual spot but right where Malachi drifted past.
Malachi slipped out of his parents’ tent at Murphy’s Holiday Camp at Matata about 7am on the Friday morning and ran into the ocean. Hutt later traced Malachi’s footsteps down to the water, about 15m away from where he was fishing.
The toddler usually slept past 8am, Whyte, from Matamata, said.
The day before he had kept trying to run into the sea, stopped by his parents.
The camp manager woke Whyte at 7.30am to tell her the news but it didn’t register at first.
It felt like a sick joke, Whyte said. ‘‘She was like: do you guys have a young child? Then she said he’s been found in the water.’’
Whyte tearfully thanked Hutt, who had few tears in his eyes, too, she said. She said she would be taking extra care with the tent’s zip to ensure there was no repeat.