A boat eventually ran out of fuel after spinning in circles when two men ended up in the water off Northland's coast.
The white-hulled boat with an outboard on the back was spotted in trouble about 150m out to sea by a person on shore at Pataua North at 5pm on February 26.
Northland Police spokeswoman Sarah Kennett said the men had been in the water when the alarm was raised. They both made it back to shore but one of them tried to paddle out to the craft on a kayak. Mrs Kennett said he was washed off the kayak from the wake of the circling boat.
Coast Guard Northern Region operations manager Ray Burge said a crew from Coastguard Tutukaka made the dash for help and found one man in the water along with a kayak. The circling boat finally stopped when the fuel ran dry. Another passing boatie gave some petrol to the stricken boatie. They also guided him back across the entrance to Pataua river and into the estuary.
Mr Burge said neither of the men who were in the water had life jackets and if the boat had been fitted with a kill cord it would have stopped the boat.