KEY POINTS:
A New Year's Day outing at an idyllic beachside camping spot turned to tragedy when a 3-year-old boy drowned in a lagoon near Gisborne yesterday afternoon.
Zane Nepe was playing with his older sisters within 50m of relatives when he disappeared shortly after 2pm from the Turihaua camping site, which is about 12km north of Gisborne.
A large search - involving local campers, police and Search and Rescue - was launched and the boy's body was found in a nearby lagoon just after 5pm. Zane's grieving father, Eru Nepe, carried his body back to near the family campsite.
Shortly before Zane was found, Mr Nepe told the Herald his son was careful around water and seldom put his head under.
"When he didn't show up for lunch with his sisters we scoured the whole beach. He's a good little kid."
Zane's four sisters are aged between 7 and 13 and were visiting relatives for the day at the beach, which is popular with freedom campers.
Zane was one of two people to drown yesterday in what turned out to be a busy day for emergency services at the beaches.
About 3.30pm a man, believed to be in his 50s, was pulled from the water at Te Mata, which is about 20 minutes north of Thames on the Coromandel Peninsula. Locals and emergency service workers tried to revive him by performing CPR, but he died at the beach.
Further south at Maketu in the Bay of Plenty, a young Rotorua boy and his family had a narrow escape after being dragged out to sea in a strong rip.
Maketu Volunteer Fire Brigade chief Shane Beech said the boy got into trouble just off the bar about 3pm, prompting five relatives to go into the water after him.
They too become stuck in the rip and were dragged out to sea.
A member of the public called Mr Beech, who called 111 before rushing from his nearby home to help.
Mr Beech and a colleague launched a rescue jetski, went out over the bar and they found two distressed women.
"When we got them they were both completely exhausted and not too far off drowning by the looks of them."
Mr Beech's colleague jumped off the jetski with a rescue tube and kept one of the women afloat while Mr Beech helped the other.
"While we were doing that, we heard the yells and screams from two others who were probably about 25m away from us."
Mr Beech drove over to the other two people, one of whom was the young boy who was being kept afloat by a male relative about 200m offshore.
A rescue boat arrived soon after and everyone was taken to shore.
Another two relatives who had also been dragged out managed to make their own way to safety.
Mr Beech said the two exhausted and cold women were in a critical condition after swallowing a lot of seawater and were taken to hospital.
The boy and his male relative, as well as the others who made their own way to shore, made a quick recovery back on the beach.
Meanwhile, police have named the man who drowned in the Hurunui River at Cheviot on New Year's Eve.
He was 47-year-old John Watson Marr, known as Wattie, of Greta Valley. He was married and had two boys. The matter has been referred to the coroner.
Mr Marr's death took the 2008 drowning toll to 96.
Last year is only the second year since records began in 1980 that the national drowning toll has been less than 100.
