Navy diver amazed to find his mate and colleague alive

Navy diver Lyle Cairns wanted to find his colleague Robert Hewitt's body so it could be given back to his family -- he was amazed instead to find his mate alive after 75 hours lost at sea.

Hewitt, 38, a former Royal New Zealand Navy diver and brother of ex All Black Norm Hewitt, was found alive off Porirua yesterday after going missing on a diving expedition on Sunday.

Chief petty officers Cairns and Buzz Tomoana, personal friends of Mr Hewitt, spotted him floating in a sheltered cove near the spot he went missing.

"The Lord's hand was on him," Mr Cairns told National Radio.

"We were going out there to search for someone who was deceased but to have an outcome like this is just over the moon."

Mr Cairns was in an inflatable boat with Mr Tomoana when they spotted Mr Hewitt.

"We both looked at each other saying this can't be happening and there was Rob Hewitt looking straight at us."

They knew he was alive because he was vertical in the water, Mr Cairns said.

They sped to him, pulled him into the boat and tried to get him to lie down, but he had other ideas.

"He wanted to sit up and he was quite talkative. He was dehydrated and asked for a drink of water."

He was then transferred onto the police launch Lady Elizabeth III.

They found him off the northern bluff of Mana Island, about 500m off the coast, about 300m from where he had initially gone down, Mr Cairns said.

Police had already searched in that area but found no sign of Mr Hewitt.

The rescued man told Newstalk ZB from his hospital bed that during his 75 hours at sea he had drifted as far north as Waikanae -- 27km from where he started his dive -- and back.

Mr Hewitt was initially disorientated when pulled from the water and did not know where he was, but was in good spirits.

Mr Cairns said it had felt like they were searching for a family member.

"When you do diving operations and diving courses you get very tight with people because you have to work in different environments with them underneath the water," he said.

"From that kind of training you get a real sense of comradeship, you stick together and this was just an operation where we knew we had to have an outcome whether it was good or bad."

In the end it was a great outcome for the family, the navy and all concerned.

"It's truly amazing."

Mr Cairns said Mr Hewitt would have got nutrition and some hydration from the crayfish and kina he managed to eat, that he collected on his dive before going missing.

It was Mr Hewitt's background, including 20 years in the navy, that allowed him to survive, Mr Cairns said.

"With the navy training you receive ... you don't panic, you don't try to swim against any currents, you just go with it, you know that you can survive without food for a very long time, it's just that water factor and he seemed to get by without water for those three days."

Night diving was a component of navy dive training, which would also have helped, he said.

Mr Hewitt was a tough guy on the outside but was a tender man on the inside.

"He loves his children and his partner, those are all the things he would have drawn on."

Maori were spiritual people and this also would have helped Mr Hewitt through the crisis, Mr Cairns said.

He hoped to see his mate when he could but believed the family had to take priority.

"I've done my job, through the navy," he said.

"When I see him I see him, we'll just have a good cup of tea or coffee over it and maybe have a few laughs."

- NZPA