A woman who fell to her death from Piha's Lion Rock after a late-night climb with friends was wearing knee-high boots, rescuers said.
Emergency services rushed to the Auckland beach after the 36-year-old woman's mates frantically phoned for help about 2am yesterday. Despite attempts to revive her, she was pronounceddead at the scene. Witnesses said the woman appeared to have slipped.
Lifeguard Jonathan Webber lives a few hundred metres from Lion Rock and scrambled to help.
"She was was wearing knee-length boots, which was hardly appropriate footwear for the terrain. The rock is not a place to be after dark and I don't know why the people were up there," he said.
Meanwhile, a 14-year-old boy has drowned at a Northland surf beach.
Dargaville police said the Auckland boy and a friend had entered the water at Maunganui Bluff, about 37km northwest of Dargaville, shortly after 4pm yesterday.
Dargaville Sergeant Dean Plowman said the pair had been taken out in a rip. Helicopter operations manager Dean Voelkerling said the boy was slightly submerged, making him difficult to spot.
