The 28-year-old man who drowned off the Raglan coast yesterday was attending an unveiling ceremony for a teen who lost his life in a railway accident.

A 7-year-old who nearly drowned at Palm Springs Thermal Pool north of Auckland yesterday is in a critical condition again.

The number of people who died in water over the recent holiday break has matched last year's grim toll of 10, worsening average Christmas drowning statistics.

A candlelight vigil has been held at Castlecliff Beach for teenager Jordan James Marshall who drowned there on Christmas Day.

A man had a close call in the water near Mangere Bridge, Auckland, this afternoon.

The toddler who drowned on Christmas Day had been missing for more than an hour before friends and family noticed he was gone, according to reports.

An 82-year-old has drowned in the Bay of Islands today - at least the fourth drowning in this holiday period.

And five of them will be men.

A Christchurch Alzheimer's patient seen "behaving strangely" a day before his body was found floating in a river mouth had drowned accidentally, a coroner has concluded.

Cory Edgecombe Lilley was swept away while swimming at Raglan on Thursday. His family are still holding out hope of finding him.

The police dive quad has arrived in Tauranga to help in the search for an Indian man who went missing while swimming at a popular Tauranga lake.

Two heroes jumped into a swollen North Island river to save the life of a woman swept away.

A 13-year-old girl who died after drowning in a Southland bay wasn't wearing an appropriate lifejacket, a coroner has found.

A man who drowned after being thrown from a boat on the Waitara River mouth in Taranaki yesterday has been named by police.

A toddler who drowned in a pond on a rural property near Otaki was the son of a former Central Pulse netball player.

A woman has been found dead in a swimming pool on Auckland’s North Shore last night.

A former Major League pitcher visits Greymouth to find out what happened on a rafting trip 17 years ago.

Those close to a drowning man who was pulled from Wellington Harbour last week say they are still mystified as to why their friend was in the water.

A teenage hero who helped to rescue a drowning man is devastated she will never get to meet the student she saved.

A 19-month-old girl has drowned in Dargaville.

A small dinghy used by a man who fell into the Whangarei Harbour and drowned has been discovered by police, tied to a buoy where the fisherman was last seen.

The burial service for two brothers who drowned at a popular surf beach north of Gisborne at the weekend will be held today.

Police have identified the body that was recovered from the Whanganui River yesterday as Jayden Tilby, 24.

The prayers of a grieving family were answered yesterday when a body believed to be that of missing teenager John Wakelin was found in the surf at Wainui Beach.

A novice boatie died in a cold Southland lake after the boat's powerful outboard motor broke free, leaving a hole in the hull.

Two young men who drowned at a popular surf beach north of Gisborne on Saturday were "really neat kids", their father says.

New signs should be placed around a popular swimming spot after a man drowned trying to save his son, a coroner says.

Two brothers who drowned at a popular surf beach north of Gisborne on Saturday have been named by police.

An Invercargill man who drowned while collecting shellfish off Ocean Beach in Bluff yesterday has been named by police.