Man drowns in lake, another taken to hospital

By BRIDGET CARTER

One man is dead and another was seriously ill last night after swimmers struck trouble in two lake incidents in Auckland and Rotorua.

A 20-year-old Onehunga man died in a very deep quarry lake adjoining Lake Pupuke on the North Shore at 4.50pm yesterday.

Another man in his 50s was taken to Rotorua Hospital about 6pm after he nearly drowned while swimming in Lake Rotorua near the city's war memorial.

The North Shore tragedy happened when the man, believed to be with his brother and friends, jumped off a bank on Shea Tce into about 9m of water, swam for a short distance, then vanished beneath the surface.

Tom Snape, 12, was swimming next to the man at the time.

Tom had plunged into the quarry lake from a bank about 4m high seconds before the victim jumped in and began dog-paddling besidehim.

"I thought he was just swimming under the water," Tom said.

"Then I looked under and he wasn't there and I thought maybe he can hold his breath.

"But then ... about five minutes later ... I thought, 'Oh, no'."

Tom's mother, Robin Snape, then yelled from the lakeside for someone to call for help, and a North Shore Hospital worker on a break summoned emergency services.

Sergeant Graham Ford of Takapuna was at the scene last night with friends and relatives of the victim, waiting for Navy divers to recover the body.

He said an autopsy was expected to be done today to provide answers to the death, which follows a number of drownings in Lake Pupuke in previous years.

Alan Muir, executive director of Water Safety New Zealand, said most drownings involved swimmers.

The key was for swimmers to match their skill level to their environment, and for parents to supervise children swimming.

Some people did not realise it was more difficult swimming in fresh water than the sea, where there was more buoyancy.

Yesterday's accidents came after a mother of two diving in the Far North died on New Year's Eve.

She was Monica Mary Hudson, 40, of Auckland.