Four people have drowned in the Ahimate Reserve area in the past week. Photo / Supplied
Four people have drowned in the Ahimate Reserve area in the past week. Photo / Supplied
A Palmerston North local said it took six men to rescue him and his companions in the stretch of river that has claimed four lives in the past week.
Police and Palmerston North City Council are now urging people not to swim at Ahimate Reserve after the bodies of two men were pulled from the Manawatū River yesterday afternoon.
It came just days after a woman and young girl, refugees from Myanmar, drowned in the same section of the Palmerston North river shortly before New Year.
Palmerston North man Matthew Brougham knows the popular riverside beach well, and considers himself a strong swimmer, but was recently nearly caught in the same spot he believes the four drownings occurred.
Brougham was at the reserve on the afternoon of Christmas eve, where his partner's brother and their friend – both aged 11 – were swimming.
Brougham said the river appeared calm but could be very dangerous. Photo / Supplied
"They were just playing out in the shallows, and then all of a sudden they just got dragged right out, and they couldn't float with it and they couldn't swim back in," he said.
"That's when I jumped in and I was running out up to my hip, then all of a sudden the river just went down – apparently that's the five-metre spot, where it went from about one metre to five metres - and I went under.
"And it just whirled around – normally you just sit on your back and float down but you couldn't even do that, it was pretty scary."
Brougham and his partner on the shore both called out for help, and five men came to their rescue.
"They jumped in and we were all kind of battling for what felt like ages," he said.
"I got out, my partner's brother got out but the other boy was caught out there for ages – there was about four guys out there with him, and they were just making no headway.
"And that's when another guy came along and jumped out on a boogie board."
Brougham said there were parts of the river that were five metres deep. Photo / Supplied
Brougham assumes the spot that caught them was in a similar area to where four people have drowned in the past week.
"I assume it's there because just up from that it's real calm water, that's where people jump off cliffs.
"I've only since found this out but apparently it used to be an old quarry so that's why there's heaps of holes down there."
Brougham said the council had been actively encouraging Ahimate Reserve as a swimming spot, and there were signs up near the river about swimming conditions.
Signs near the river in the Ahimate Reserve. Photo / Supplied
He suggested a tool where people could report near misses to inform the council's advice.
"We thought maybe if they have an app or a link on their website, if you have a near miss at a waterhole you could report it and it could be investigated," he said.
"On the council website it was promoted as one of the places to go this summer. I guess that's where the reporting needs to come into play, because the council might not know."
"We left and we thought it happened but we didn't need to report anything. If we had, potentially things could have been different."
Ahimate Reserve in Awapuni is a 22-hectare riverside park, home to a popular beach, a dog agility park and fenced enclosure, mountain bike tracks and a natural playground.
It has been previously described in a council pamphlet as "one of Palmy's best swim spots".
However, the council website now lists it as a "dangerous spot to swim", saying they no longer recommend swimming there "as of January 2022".
Myanmar refugees Mu Mu, 27, and Blae Ler Paw, 11, reportedly drowned in the Manawatū River on December 29.
A Palmerston North City Council spokeswoman confirmed they had previously had information about swimming at Ahimate on their website.
"We updated these webpages yesterday in line with the move to make Ahimate a 'no swim' area," she said.
"We will continue to work alongside Police, Horizons Regional Council, Rangitane and other community groups to determine what further educational tools or information could be of assistance."
The spokeswoman did not comment on whether a reporting tool could be considered.
Brougham said he and his partner felt "sick" when they thought about their near miss.
"We thought it was pretty scary at the time but since we've heard that the four people died it's kind of made it a bit more scary to see how close we could have got.
"If the guys hadn't been there to help us, then what would have happened? It's a pretty scary thought."
