Dead rescuer labelled a hero

A man has died while visiting the Rere rockslide.

The Tauranga-based wife whose husband died while saving his son and another boy from drowning was distraught but proud of his heroic actions, says a woman who helped the family.

The 41-year-old man, from South Korea, was with his wife and 8-year-old son at a popular river rockslide pool near Gisborne when their child and another boy got into trouble.

The man jumped in to rescue the pair, thought to be cousins, who were sliding down the Rere rockslide a tourist attraction on the Wharekopae River, 50km north-west of Gisborne.

While he managed to push them to safety, the man disappeared underwater. His body was recovered by dive squad members shortly after 12am.

Police are yet to identify the deceased but the Bay of Plenty Times understands his wife and son live in Tauranga, while he worked in South Korea.

A couple, who live about 1km from the rockslide attraction, provided shelter to the traumatised family while police searched for the body.

The woman, who declined to be named, said another man from the group arrived at her home about 3pm and told her a family member was missing.

"My husband just went up there ... to assist to see if we could find him," the woman added.

Emergency services were called, and later the grieving family was brought back to their home while the search continued, she said.

She understood the man who first sought help was the 41-year-olds brother-in-law, and father of the other boy rescued.

The two families had been heading north when they stopped at the rockslide, she said.

It was obviously a family day out, they'd been to Eastwoodhill, they were coming up here and heading home to Tauranga and it ended in tragedy. We just invited the family back to our place to use it as a base, the woman said.

While communication was limited because of a language barrier, the woman said the deceased's wife was extremely proud of his actions.

I think they came to the conclusion after a period of time, when he hadn't resurfaced, that he would have passed.

In his wife's mind, he was brave because he saved their son. They were just proud of him that they were able to save his son, she said.

Police said the group had stopped at the rockslide after reading about it on the internet.

The mans wife was extremely traumatised, search co-ordinator Sergeant Greg Lexmond said.

He added the river level was not considered extreme at the time of the incident.

-with the Gisborne Herald