Drowning victim had a bright future: family

Breanna Lattimore was moving home with plans to study politics when a spur-of-the-moment decision cost her life.

The 24-year-old drowned while swimming in the river below the Maruia Falls, off State Highway 65 in the Tasman district, about 3pm on Saturday.

She had been living in Motueka on and off for a couple of years, but had packed up her life to return to Christchurch where she grew up and attended Burnside High School.

Diane Lattimore said her daughter was more than just a ‘‘free spirit’’ – she was intelligent, opinionated, fluent in French, political and wanted to make a difference in the world.

Inspired by Green Party MP Chloe Swarbrick, who at age 23 became the youngest MP to enter Parliament in 42 years, Breanna planned to study political science at Canterbury University and was thinking about getting into journalism, Diane Lattimore said.

She said her daughter had arranged for a ride to Christchurch, and the man she was travelling with always stopped at Maruia Falls on the way.

The 11-metre waterfall, about 50 kilometres south of Murchison, is a popular stop-off on the trip between Christchurch to Nelson. Safety signage warns people not to enter the water.

Breanna Lattimore jumped in the river, below the falls, in her clothes.

She got caught in an eddy, where the river water recirculates.

‘‘She just jumped in and was floating ... then all of a sudden she realised she was caught,’’ her mother said.

People were directing her to shore, and she was making progress, but she got caught in the circulating water again, she said.

‘‘She went under, then came back up, then went under.’’

A whitewater rescue team from Murchison found Breanna’s body later that day.

A funeral was planned for today and a coroner would investigate her death.