Shaun Ireton saved four people caught in a rip at Tirohanga Beach, east of Ōpōtiki. Photo / Alan Gibson
Stomach heaving and shoulders burning, Shaun Ireton felt completely spent when the third drowning child that he had just saved spat out vomit and pleaded, 'Please save my dad'.
The fit 48-year-old Whakatāne concreter had spent his whole life in and around the ocean. A fisherman, diver and surfer, thefather-of-two knew and respected it.
He also knew that 14 people had died in New Zealand beaches and rivers over the Christmas-New Year period alone – the highest number in 25 years.
So although he was exhausted, and fearful that the raging rip could also take his own life, he turned and swam back into the sea.
"I just kept swimming and pushing her in front of me and then pulling her and doing it over again. The other one managed to come with us.
"When I finally got her to shore, I was pretty gassed because it was a strong rip but her brother, who was about 14, was saying, 'Save me!' and I thought, 'S***, here we go."
Ireton swam back out and reached the boy.
He dragged him back in, pushing him forward as waves broke, using nature's momentum, and getting them back to dry land.
"He was really spent," Ireton recalls. "He was spewing up on the beach, coughing up water, but then he says, 'Please save my dad'."
Totally exhausted, he ventured back into the ocean and rescued the boy's father.
Ireton doesn't know where the extra reserves of energy and strength came from.
"Once the boy called out to me, 'Save me', I don't know ... I just did it without thinking."
Meanwhile, the last man managed to make his own way in.
The ordeal was over. All seven of them were now heaving and huffing on the sand.
Two ambulances arrived and looked over five patients, a St John spokeswoman said. They were said to be in a moderate condition, and two in a minor condition. None needed hospital treatment.
Soon, the rescued turned their attentions to their drained saviour.
"There was a lot of love for me that day," Ireton says.
The group – visitors from Rotorua - hugged him and thanked him for saving their lives.
The next day, he received a text message from one of the girls, which "made me feel a bit tearful".
"Hey Shaun, I'm not 100% sure if it's the right Shaun but yesterday a Shaun Ireton saved my family and friends from what could've been a tragic drowning at Tirohanga camp ground. If this is you, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for what you did. Without you, I'd be left without a brother, a father. I'll never forget you and I truly believe you are a living miracle – an angel sent from heaven. You're my hero Shaun."
A humble Ireton plays down his actions and says he acted without thinking, and did what he could.
But he is moved by the young girl's words of gratitude.