Saved from drowning
A dramatic rescue of a drowning mother and daughter at Kaiteriteri Beach has highlighted the risks of the fast-running tidal rip at the popular holiday spot.
Holidaying Wellingtonians Alan Bruce and his 14-year-old son, Lachlan, were near the estuary at the southern end of the beach on the Wednesday before Christmas when they heard screaming.
‘‘You can hear the difference between regular yelling and real terror,’’ Alan Bruce said.
When he looked out he saw three people, a woman who looked to be in her 50s and her two daughters, being dragged out to sea.
Bruce immediately swam out to the closest of the three, a girl about 13 years old.
‘‘I asked her ‘are you OK’ and she was panicking, she said ‘no’ but I had to make a difficult call, and the other two were further out . . . I just had to leave her and trust that my son or someone from the beach would be able to help her,’’ Bruce said.
Lachlan was able to help the girl to safety, while Alan swam out to the remaining two.
He said the woman had done an ‘‘amazing job’’ keeping her daughter above water but ‘‘she had reached the point where she was going to go down with her’’. ‘‘The mother was keeping the daughter up; she had nothing left to give.’’
Bruce took the daughter, who he said was about 7 years old, and kept her afloat. Like many drowning victims, the girl immediately latched on to Bruce’s neck and shoulders.
‘‘She immediately started choking me . . . if she had been an adult, I would have had to leave her because it was actually really dangerous. But she was only about 7; she was helpless.’’
Bruce said two other men swam out to help but both were forced to retreat again after becoming exhausted. ‘‘Fortunately, I’m a marathon runner, so I was able to use my fitness . . . I know my limits, though. I went a bit beyond them this time around.’’
He said the two men were crucial because they gave Bruce enough of a break to recover his breath and get ready to help the girl back to the shore. He had to let the rip carry them both further out before he could swim back and said they must have been about 150m to 200m out from shore.
‘‘By the time we both got to shore, we were shattered, throwing up seawater . . . I told the mum to take the girl to hospital because she’s swallowed a lot.’’
The after-effects of his own exertions saw a dehydrated Bruce call an ambulance to take him to hospital where he was put on an intravenous drip for several hours.