Within half an hour of the incident at Big Manly Beach in Whangaparāoa, another person died at Narrow Neck Beach on the North Shore.
All of the six drownings over the weekend occurred at beaches or residences that aren’t patrolled by lifeguards, Surf Live Saving NZ said.
They included Sunday’s drowning at unpatrolled Tawharanui Regional Park.
On Saturday, one person died at Takapuna, while two people died at North Piha despite United North Piha lifeguards’ attempts to rescue them after patrols had ended for the day, Surf Life Saving Northern Region chief executive Matt Williams said.
Tāwharanui drowning witnesses’ lucky escape from rough water
Witnesses at Tāwharanui yesterday said they got out of the water earlier because the strong currents and rips “spooked” them.
Jeri Brunton was at the Anchor Bay beach, north of Auckland, and left the water around the same time an “older” man was pulled onto the sand and given emergency CPR.
“It felt like there was a rip in the water so I had actually gotten out because I got spooked by the current,” Brunton said.
“And right around that time we noticed the helicopters.”
St John Ambulance sent two helicopters and two ambulances to the scene.
Another woman at the scene, who didn’t wish to be named, said she had also left the water because it was rough.
She said she and her children spent about five minutes in the water, but the waves kept “getting higher and higher” while the currents were “crazy” and dragging them around.
“I could just feel we are going deeper,” she said.
“I said to the kids we need to get out of the water now.”
“It is very, very rough ... it’s not safe to swim at that time.”
As the woman gathered her kids and left the water, she saw a man, she described as looking like he was aged in his 50s, being brought on to the sand.
“I think it was two people, dragging someone out of the water,” she said.
Members of the public ran to help.
“There were people trying to resuscitate him, give him CPR,” she said.
Desperate beachgoers performed CPR on a man for 30 minutes until paramedics arrived at Takatu Rd in Anchor Bay, she said.
‘No one to live for’
The grief-stricken wife of one of the men who died at Piha Beach on Saturday, meanwhile, has revealed she has been left utterly lost and bereft after earlier losing her family in India to Covid.
“She has no one to care for and no one to live for,” a friend of the two dead men, Hiren Patel, told the Herald.
The pair who lost their lives at the Auckland west coast beach had chosen one of the most dangerous spots to enter the water and family say they did not know how to swim.
Indian High Commission second secretary Durga Dass confirmed the two men were Saurin Nayankumar Patel and Anshul Shah, who both hailed from Ahmedabad in the Indian state of Gujarat.
Patel, 28, was an electrical engineer who arrived in New Zealand in August, while Shah, 31, worked as a cashier at a fuel station and arrived here in November.
“It is a massive tragedy for the Indian community, the loss of these two men, and our thoughts go out to their families,” Dass said.
Hiren said another friend, Apurv Modi, was also in the water when a “rogue wave” pulled the trio apart.
Modi reached for Patel’s hand but couldn’t hold on as he “screamed and shouted” for help, Hiren said.
“It is with God’s grace that Apurv Modi survived. He managed to come to shore but he lost his friends,” Hiren said.
