The Whangarei Falls has again claimed the life of a young person on Christmas Eve.
Whangarei police Sergeant Andy Thomson said a teenage girl, believed to be from Kawakawa, appeared to have fallen down a 25-metre cliff beside the falls in the early hours of Friday morning.
Police, fire, and ambulance staff
were called to the falls about 10am on Friday after associates of the girl, who had gone looking for her, discovered her a short distance above the water line.
Mr Thomson said her death was not believed to be suspicious.
"It appears to have been an accident."
The incident comes exactly two years after 19-year-old Whangarei man Nik Morgan died after accidentally plunging off the falls on Christmas Eve, 2002.
Mr Thomson said the two Christmas Eve deaths at the falls were coincidence and it was "extremely tragic" the accident had occurred so close to Christmas.
The girl was pronounced dead at the scene of the incident and an undertaker was called.
Grieving family and friends rushed to the falls and began to comfort each other on Friday.
A post mortem was be conducted and the case will be referred to the coroner.
