Susan Edmunds takes to the water with a surf school - and manages to do without Piha Rescue.

Glenn Anderson opened his campaign at the New Zealand surf lifesaving championships today in familiar fashion.

Three young lifeguards were in the right place at the right time yesterday, reviving a man who had shown no signs of life for 20 minutes.

Six surf lifeguards today completed a 5200km circumnavigation of New Zealand, coming ashore to a noisy welcome in Auckland.

A 52-year-old man who drowned at Muriwai Beach west of Auckland last night paid the ultimate price for not heeding the warning signs at the notoriously dangerous swimming spot.

One of the two men plucked from rough surf last night would have survived only minutes longer, says the firefighter who mounted the speedy jetski rescue on the Bay of Plenty coast last night.

The drowning death toll will rise if school swimming lessons aren't made compulsory, the Government has been warned.

This is the toll drowning has taken on New Zealand in the fortnight that the nation has been on holiday.

Beach-goers appear to be heeding warnings to swim between the flags, although some surf lifesaving clubs are finding the summer busier than others.

Surf lifesaving was invented in Australia and Bondi and Bronte vie for the title of having the oldest lifesaving clubs in the country.