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A man in his 50s was in hospital with hypothermia last night after spending two hours in the water at the Port of Auckland in his suit and tie.
The man was plucked to safety by ferry staff who spotted him clinging to one of the supports on Princes Wharf and waving a white handkerchief.
A Just Cruising Charters ferry was returning to downtown Auckland from Bayswater about 10.30am when deckhand Brent Hollinger saw the man.
He alerted the skipper, who diverted the ferry about 100m to the wharf.
The man was sitting on a cross beam under the wharf "absolutely drenched", Mr Hollinger said.
"He was wearing heaps of clothes too - a jacket, a shirt, a tie, pants and even shoes."
Mr Hollinger climbed on to the beam from the stern of the ferry and lifted the man on to the ferry with the help of one of the 10 passengers on board.
"I'm just glad that we saw him. You can't really say what would have happened but he could have been knocked unconscious and someone could have been pulling a body out of the water instead."
Mr Hollinger said there was a ladder close to where the man was sitting but because of his age and the fact he was so cold, he probably wouldn't have had the strength to climb it.
The man was too disoriented to say who he was or how he had got there, Mr Hollinger said.
"He wasn't really making sense at all."
Fullers operations manager Ian Greenslade said he believed the man had fallen from Princes Wharf.
Staff back at the ferry terminal had waited with warm clothing for the man and called an ambulance.
St John's advanced paramedic Nick Scott said the man was treated for hypothermia and cuts to his arms and legs.
He was taken in a serious but stable condition to Auckland City Hospital suffering hypothermia.
Mr Scott praised the ferry staff. "The guys did all the right stuff. They got rid of his wet gear and put warm stuff on him. They had it all under control and in a warm environment when we arrived."
Mr Scott said the man appeared to have been in the water for about two hours.
