“We’ve got to go in now [or] it might be too late.
“I ran to the end of the wharf, dropped my stuff and jumped straight off.”
Makoare reached the man roughly 20m from the wharf and made sure he was calm.
“I was trying to swim to the wharf, but the current was too strong. So I told him to hop on his back and float for a bit,” he said.
Mauafu-Reti then jumped in and the pair swam towards the Beach Haven Ferry terminal, each with an arm under the man’s shoulders.
Luca Makoare, 16, is being celebrated as a hero after he and his friend saved a drowning man off Beach Haven Wharf. Photo / supplied
“We tried to go to the wharf but the current was too strong, but luckily we got there just in time because we were at the edge of the terminal,” he said.
“We just told him to hold on. Luckily a boat came around the corner, took him off the ferry terminal and back to the wharf.”
After the rescue, the pair were questioned by police and then carried on swimming.
Makoare’s uncle Jaq Nohi posted on Facebook the next day how proud he was of the pair for “jeopardising their own lives without hesitation or even a second thought to help someone in need”.
“Anyone [who] knows Beach Haven Wharf and the current that flows through there knows it’s hard to get back once you’re caught,” he said.
“To have the strength to swim out and back with this adult who was struggling was absolutely courageous.”
Hato Hone St John said it was notified of a water incident in Beach Haven at 6.57pm on Sunday, and one ambulance and one rapid response unit attended.
“One patient in a moderate condition was transported to North Shore Hospital.”
Makoare’s mother Laurene told the Herald how proud she was of her son.
