The storm was brewing in Cook Strait on April 10 1968, as CIB constable-in training Ray Witham was pursuing a burglar who had absconded from an interview room the day before.
Now retired to Wanganui and back in the family's Springvale home where he was raised, the 70-year old spoke of the day the Lyttelton to Wellington ferry Wahine foundered at the entrance to Wellington Harbour.
On board were 123 crew 610 passengers and two stowaways. Fifty-one people died that day. It may have been the 46th anniversary which prompted an email to the Chronicle last week asking if we knew Mr Witham; the emailer was writing on behalf of his aunt whom Mr Witham helped save. His aunt had seen her rescuer in a documentary.
Mr Witham and another policeman, Rangi Rangihika, were ordered to head out to Eastbourne; at that time they did not realise the Wahine was sinking.
Waves 12m high whipped up by the southerly storm, crashed over the Hutt motorway; visibility on the harbour was less than 50 metres.
The two policemen arrived at Burdon's Gate at the southern end of Eastbourne, and were instructed to head south toward Pencarrow Heads where it was believed survivors would land along the coast.
A 16-year old Wellington College student, Bruce Mitchell, who had stayed home that day to look after his father's boat in Lowry's Bay, asked if he could join them.
The single-lane coast road was impassable to traffic, as Mr Witham, Mr Rangihika, Bruce and two others set off on foot.
"We walked around the headlands and came across survivors in a state of undress. They were in shock and in another world."
The rescue group rounded another headland to find an upturned liferaft under which was a man caught by his legs. They tried to lift the liferaft but it was too heavy. Then they realised the man was already dead.
The young student had seen enough. "This is not for me," he said, and ran home.
The roar of the sea was constant, and around another headland the group came across carnage - bodies were strewn on the shoreline, among them an elderly lady who was tearful, cold and frightened.
Mr Witham said he went up to her and she grabbed his hand.
"I had to keep telling her help was on the way." On his return the lady was still sitting there. She had died.
There were others who were washed ashore on to jagged rocks, who did not have a chance.
Mr Witham remembers making eye contact with a man who was washed on to the shore, but then swept back out into the harbour. He was washed back ashore and on to the jagged rocks. He also died.
There have been reunions over the years, and at one Mr Witham asked a crewman when he first knew they had hit Barrett's Reef.
"He had gone below to the vehicle deck where a Coca Cola truck was parked beside a truck packed with eggs.
"Broken glass and eggs were everywhere."
Mr Witham wrote his memoirs about what happened that day.
"For our part we had all done as much as we could.
"It was a long trek back to Burdon's Gate. It was like walking through a battle zone. In an odd way, on that walk back, I too felt like a survivor.
"I remember only a feeling of total emptiness, just physically and emotionally spent.
"I had nothing more to give."
Mr Witham was offered professional help 25 years after he went to help those who survived, and those who succumbed to the southerly storm that sunk the Wahine in Wellington Harbour.
These days Mr Witham keeps busy writing in-season motorcycling for Midweek and is in his sixth year as the Saturday morning sports hour host on Newstalk ZB in Wanganui.
He is also a commentator for the Boxing Day Cemetery Circuit and local commentator at Oceanview Speedway.
The Chronicle passed on Mr Witham's details to the person who emailed on behalf of his aunt.