'Save yourself - I'm gone,' said trawler victim

Judy Hayward said a Mother's Day present from her husband was sitting unopened in their spare room. Picture / Simon Baker

BLUFF - One of three people confirmed dead after a boat carrying nine people rolled near Stewart Island on Saturday told his best mate to leave him lashed to a woolpack and swim to shore alone.

Ian James Hayward told the skipper of the Kotuku, John Edminstin, that he "didn't have it left in him and that he just couldn't go any further", Mr Hayward's brother-in-law Les Frisby said last night.

"They were both holding on to a wool-pack arrangement and they were making pretty good headway, making their way to the shore, but he just couldn't go any further.

"The two survivors who could swim had already passed them, and Shorty [Mr Hayward] just felt he was already gone.

"So he told the skipper to tie him there and to go to shore himself. He was already gone."

Mr Edminstin managed to swim a short distance to the shore of Women's Island but was too weak to go any further than the beach.

"Shorty", his best mate and father of three, was the first person confirmed dead. The wool bale remained on the beach yesterday.

"Shorty just couldn't make it. They tried so hard, but he couldn't make it," Mr Frisby said.

The tragedy has left five others missing or dead, including four from three generations of the Topi family from Bluff. Six whanau members were among the nine people on board the 17m Kotuku.

The boat was returning from collecting mutton-bird hunters on the Muttonbird Islands when it capsized about 2.30pm about 15km off the coast of Stewart Island.

Judy Hayward yesterday praised her husband's best friend, Mr Edminstin, as a "mighty man".

Her husband was not a strong swimmer, but Mr Edminstin had tried desperately to keep him alive.

Life expectancy in the 12C waters was about five hours and it was almost four hours before anyone was aware of the disaster.

Fires lit by Mr Edminstin and the other survivors, Paul Topi and his nephew Dylan Topi, were the first sign that something was wrong.

Still missing are Peter Topi and his grandchildren Sailor Trow-Topi and Shain Topi-Tairi, both 9. Confirmed dead are Sailor's mother, Tania Topi, Mr Hayward and a Kotuku crew member, Clinton Woods.

Mrs Hayward said her husband had gone out with Mr Edminstin to help on Friday and rang to say he would see her on Saturday night.

He was on a day off from his work as a transport operator at the New Zealand Aluminium Smelters, where he had worked for 21 years.

A sufferer of seasickness, Mr Hayward had questioned whether he should go on the trip, but when Mr Edminstin rang to say they would stay on Stewart Island for a night before picking up the family, he agreed.

He had a love-hate relationship with the water, but he loved to be out there and was perhaps hoping for a muttonbird or a feed of fish, she said.

Mrs Hayward said a Mother's Day present from her husband was sitting unopened in their spare room.

She knew something was wrong when members of the Topi family rang to say "the boat was down".

She had sometimes worried about her husband at sea. "But then John was such a capable, experienced skipper and Shorty trusted him."

Mr Hayward's family remembered him as a seafood lover, a great gardener "who always wanted to have the first new spuds" and a man who loved his rugby, racing and beer.

"He would always have a beer in his hand, or in his pocket if he was in the garden."

He would regularly go out to sea with his friends and catch a feed of fish for his family and cook it up in butter and herbs from his garden.

"It was like Bluff was made for him," said his daughter Tina. "He didn't like to sit still.

"My heart goes out to the other families. Kia kaha."

Alice Leigh, a neighbour of one of the Topi brothers, Colin, said the whanau were extremely close and well respected.

"Peter has lived in Bluff all his life. He only went out there [to the island] for the trip to pick them up."

It was understood most of the family had been on the island for about three weeks, staying at a home while they went mutton-birding.

"They have a house on Ruapuke [another island] as well. They own land out there."

The family were part of Ngai Tahu, the South Island's main iwi.

"They are a very generous family. Colin would give you anything, or do anything for you," Ms Leigh said.

"His father [Peter] was absolutely marvellous. He's been retired for a while. It's thrown this community for six. That strait is one of the worst seas in the world."

A Stewart Island resident, who did not want to be named, said the Topi family were very well known locally as they had lived on Stewart Island for a time.

It was the end of the mutton bird season, and it was common for entire families, including children, to go mutton-birding on the islands.

She said the locals "hadn't a clue what happened to the boat".

"There were no calls given. We just heard reports that a boat had gone down, realised that something had gone dreadfully wrong and a search was initiated from that."

Inspector Barry Taylor of Invercargill said the police were not aware of the tragedy until about 6.20pm, when fires were spotted on an island and a vessel found debris.

The police did not believe the boat had hit rocks and were unsure why it had capsized. Mr Taylor was not aware of any mayday call.

A spokesman for Maritime New Zealand said about 20 boats, three helicopters and a fixed-wing aircraft searched the area yesterday.

Two bodies were recovered - one from the sea north of the Muttonbird Islands and one from the shoreline of North Island, part of the Muttonbird group.

A small surface oil spill had been found 2km northwest of the Muttonbird Islands and a national police dive team from Wellington was being brought in to try to find the Kotuku today.

Invercargill police had liaised with the Search and Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Wellington overnight on Saturday and the centre took over co-ordinating the search yesterday.

Mission controller Keith Allen said the search for the three missing people would resume today.

Three vessels were expected to remain in the area overnight.

- OTAGO DAILY TIMES, additional reporting: Simon O'Rourke