Dad, daughter rescued after kayak flip

A witness said she was surprised at the man's attempt to navigate the current only seconds before the kayak flipped. Photo / Thinkstock

A man and his 4-year-old daughter had to be rescued when their kayak flipped and dragged them out to sea at the mouth of Tukituki River at Haumoana yesterday.

The pair were not wearing lifejackets. The father was wearing only a wetsuit while his daughter had gumboots on when their kayak overturned in the fast-flowing waters - leaving them clinging to their upturned vessel.

The current quickly dragged them into the sea and left them stuck on the edge of a small shingle island just offshore - the only remaining barrier between themselves and the ocean.

Hawke's Bay police acting Senior Sergeant Mike Stevenson said it appeared the strong current had flipped the kayak.

"People are still a little bit too blasé about water safety,'' he said.

"It is imperative that people take the necessary precautions and [one of] those should be wearing lifejackets. Particularly given the girl's age, one would assume she wouldn't be a strong swimmer."

A witness said she was surprised at the man's attempt to navigate the current only seconds before the kayak flipped.

She watched as the man grabbed his daughter before clinging to the overturned kayak, and then angling themselves on to the edge of the island.

David Goodman was one of many people fishing and whitebaiting at the river mouth yesterday afternoon and instantly knew the 44-year-old man and his daughter were in trouble when he saw them upside-down and disappearing underwater.

"She was going in and out of sight and I wasn't sure if there were two or three [people], but it must have been his leg that was showing on the other side of the boat,'' he said.

Remembering he had brought a longboard with him, he grabbed it and started paddling toward the shingle island.

"I raced over, grabbed it and paddled across, and got her back before she got too cold. I said: 'Come on, you'll be all right.'

"I laid her on top of the board and she sort of calmed down a bit when she saw she was closer to home."

Witnesses said that once back on shore the girl was panicking and had swallowed water.

Bystanders had wrapped dry clothes around her and she was taken on the back of a quad bike belonging to fisherman James Daniell up to the parking area.

"That girl would have died, definitely," he later noted.

"She was freezing."

Mr Goodman also said the situation could easily have ended in disaster, describing it as "touch and go".

"It could have been quite tragic.

"She was pale, in major shock and, yeah, pretty cold."

The girl's father swam in off the island along with another rescuer, who had gone out with Mr Goodman.

Both the girl and her father left in an ambulance not long after police and the ambulance arrived at the scene, while the Coastguard and a rescue helicopter had been placed on standby.

Before he left the man told Hawke's Bay Today he and his daughter were both "lucky to be here" and he had been going under water himself, only just managing to hold his daughter up out of the water.

Mr Goodman played down his heroic efforts, saying he was only trying to help, particularly a child without a lifejacket.

Mr Stevenson said Mr Goodman had done a "bloody good job" and deserved a pat on the back.