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Trapped in a rocky crevasse by rising water, Kish Proctor volunteered to be the first student to jump into the swollen torrent of the Mangatepopo River and swim to safety.
As he made his leap, his companions from Elim Christian College, in Howick, gave him a cheer.
It was the last time 15-year-old Kish saw six of those schoolmates.
They died, with teacher Tony McClean, as Kish was being swept along the river and over a dam.
Rocks split his safety helmet as the current dragged him under, and swirling water ripped off his boots.
He prayed to God to save him.
A pile of logs was the answer to his prayers - halting his terrifying journey long enough for him to catch his breath, scramble ashore and go for help.
Kish started the day in an excited school group setting out on an adventure; he ended it as one of only a few survivors, lying in a Taupo Hospital bed thanking the Lord after his "supernatural" experience.
"All I can say is this is my story and this is what happened to me and God saved me," Kish told the Herald yesterday.
That morning, the 10 students had been well rested and on a high after tackling the high ropes.
They kitted up with wetsuits, helmets and lifejackets, and walked down to the river.
Accompanied by Mr McClean and a Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pursuits Centre instructor, they climbed up a Genesis Energy dam.
"We went through all these rocks and then we went into this place where there were two cliffs on each side," said Kish.
"The whole group was happy, we were excited - everyone had a good attitude and we were like, 'Yeah, this is just so fun'. Everyone was talking about how fun it was."
With their feet in the water, the teenagers worked their way along the edge of the river, holding on to rocks.
But the torrential rain was bringing a problem.
The outdoor pursuits centre instructor turned the group around, apparently saying the water level was too high, and they reached a rocky crevasse, intending to wait for the water level to drop.
But it kept rising.
"We were all sitting down and we were real cold," said Kish.
"She [the instructor] said, 'We'll wait for the water level to go down', and it kept raining and the water kept going up and up and up and water kept gushing and gushing.
"From barely our ankles, the water went up to past our knees - this was 30 minutes we waited there."
As the torrent kept rising, a plan was made for students to jump in, float across the river and around a blind corner, to be caught by the waiting instructor.
The instructor went first with one student strapped on her back.
Mr McClean had arranged to start sending students five minutes later.
"They asked for a volunteer to go first, and I said I would go first," said Kish.
"I went on my back and I let go and I moved from the rock and everyone was cheering me on."
Once in the water, he faced an unexpected problem.
"I couldn't see what was around the corner. I just went - the current took me - and it went out and it opened up into this large place nearby where the dam was and she [the instructor] was on the other side ... I was a long way away and there was no way she could have caught me.
"She saw me and I tumbled off the dam and I tried to catch the rope.
"I just kept tumbling and hitting rocks and my helmet split open - it split into half. I lost my boots and everything.
"I was just gasping for air and I was under the current most of the time. Every time I got up, I just breathed in air and I just called on God's name.
"'God save me', I said that, 'God, please just do this for me'."
Kish ended up in a pile of logs, battered and bruised, catching his breath as his bootless and sockless foot started to turn black.
He said he propped himself up, hit his own chest and spat out water, and called on strength to move - knowing that if he didn't, he would never get out.
"I just felt it was God telling me, 'You have to get up and go, otherwise you're going to die', because water just kept coming and it was getting higher."
Once out of the water, Kish got to a road and started walking towards the dam.
"Two instructors came and said, 'Are you all right? Are you okay? Have you seen anyone else?' I didn't know anything at that point."
Road closures stopped the ambulance carrying him to hospital taking a direct route to Taupo, and he was transferred to a second ambulance for operational reasons.
At hospital, he called his family - with whom he was reunited yesterday morning - before being told of the deaths of his six school friends and teacher.
For his mother, Vasanti Proctor, the immense relief of discovering her son was safe was tinged with grief over the tragic loss of the others.
She said the family didn't know the names of the seven who died when they were told at the police station, and the impact of the situation was only slowly sinking in.
The Proctors live close to the Fernandez family, who lost son Floyd and are part of the tight-knit school community.
Said Mrs Proctor: "I'm sharing with other parents' grief as well - it's indescribable."
