KEY POINTS:
A police dive squad from Wellington will today try and retrieve the body of a kayaker drowned on the West Coast yesterday.
Search and rescue teams were yesterday unable to find Alan Smith William Hill, 45, of Greymouth, who fell from a kayak into Lake Poerua, near Lake Brunner, around midday.
Another man in the kayak managed to swim ashore and raise the alarm.
Constable Sean Judd, of West Coast Search and Rescue, said last night they have given up hope of finding Mr Hill alive.
He said it was unlikely he had been wearing a lifejacket.
The man who made it to shore was a 47-year-old self-employed man from Nelson was treated by St John paramedics for shock and hypothermia.
He made it to a nearby farm house where he raised the alarm.
- NZPA
