Fast work saves teens from tide

By EUGENE BINGHAM

Gasping for breath under the weight of 2m waves, Quentin Melbye desperately kept track of two teenage girls he was trying to keep alive.

Minutes earlier, the 61-year-old had just reeled in a kahawai when he noticed the girls struggling to keep their footing crossing the Mokau River where it churned into the Tasman Sea on the Taranaki coast.

"I was about 60m to 70m away when I saw them go over the end of the sand bank and that was it - they were off to sea," said Mr Melbye, a printer from New Lynn, Auckland. "I saw they were in trouble and that they were panicking."

He stripped to his underwear, waded into the river until the current caught hold of him, then swam towards the 15-year-old friends, Cassidy Falwasser and Catherine Turner.

His plan was to help them get ashore before the river reached the sea but the speed of the current surprised him.

"I've seen rips at Muriwai [on Auckland's west coast] ... but this was something more than that."

As the three of them were thrust out over the bar and bashed by the breaking waves, he came up with another strategy.

"All I had to do was to settle them down and stop them panicking."

He told the girls to get on their backs and keep their heads above water. "People know where we're going. Sooner or later we'll get picked up."

Mr Melbye's actions, and those of others who rallied to help the girls last Saturday, saved their lives.

Harry Duggan, Cassidy's foster father, said: "I know Quen doesn't like the word, but he and the guy who went out in the boat to save them are heroes to me. They really risked their lives. I can't thank them, or the others who helped, enough."

Mr Melbye was spending the weekend hunting and fishing downcountry with a mate. They stayed at Nihoniho where Mr Melbye and his wife, Marjorie, own a place.

Mr Duggan, Marjorie's cousin, lives nearby.

On Saturday Mr Duggan and his children headed to Mokau to go fishing with Mr Melbye and his friend.

While the men surfcasted, the girls swam across the river, finding themselves in trouble when the tide was going out.

Constable Jono Erwood from Mokau said it was a dangerous situation.

"It's a rugged coastline and the way the river flows out, the current can be very strong."

Ray Christiansen, who lives at the river mouth, was at home on Saturday having a cup of tea with a friend, Brian Ewington, when a woman came yelling that people were in trouble.

"I looked at the bar and thought, 'she's going to be an interesting trip for anyone who wants to go out there'," said Mr Christiansen, 63.

With the help of Mr Ewington, he launched his boat, a 6m plastic pontoon craft named Stingray.

"The waves were coming in all directions. You wouldn't normally go out in those confused seas. The waves were coming over the top."

Mr Ewington finally spotted the trio after they had been in the water about 50 minutes and raced them to shore, where they were met by an ambulance.

Cassidy was flown to hospital but discharged that night.

Back in Auckland, Mr Melbye was happy to get on with life in his modest way. As word spread around work about what he had done, people would slap him on the back and say, "Good on ya, bud." He shrugged off any hero talk, but was pleased with the way things worked out.

So were the girls and Mr Duggan, who said: "God was with us."