Fatal stop for swim on way home
Breanna Charlotte Lattimore was moving home to Christchurch 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 south of Murchison, 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, Lattimore planned to study political science at Canterbury University and was thinking about getting into journalism, her mother 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 is a popular stop-off on the trip between Christchurch to Nelson. Safety signage warns people not to enter the water.
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 her body an hour later.
Diane Lattimore said her daughter was always home for important family events, or to recharge between travels, and never missed Christmas Day at home.
She said she had made Breanna and her brother, Mason, 22, Santa sacks.
Breanna sent her mother a Facebook message from Tapawera, south of Motueka, but she did not see it until after her daughter was dead.
‘‘It was too late to reply to her. I didn’t check Facebook until it was too late.’’
The family was barely coping after her death, she said.
‘‘She was so excited to come home again. I’ve got to think she’s just on a holiday somewhere or on another adventure.’’
A funeral was planned for Friday and a coroner would investigate her death.