The New Zealand host family of a 16-year-old Korean student who died while swimming on Saturday wept in the arms of the boy's relatives at Waitangi Lagoon in Awatoto yesterday.
It was where the New Horizon College of English student went swimming with another international student and their host family, in a sheltered finger of the estuary 250m from where water from the Ngaruroro, Tutaekuri and Clive rivers enter the sea.
A police spokesman said the deceased gave assurances he could swim to the host family, but his ability now looked limited.
"He appears to have gone out of his depth and got into trouble, which a lot of people do," the police spokesman said.
His companion "did everything he could" after the student disappeared before raising the alarm and alerting several jetskis in the lagoon, which searched for him.