Grateful youngsters get to meet their hero

ONE WHANAU: Wiremu Bennett-Hati and Rex Haora Pairama with their rescuer, Dudley Andrews, and their grandmother Janet Morunga at last week's giving of thanks.

Tears were not far away last week when Dudley Andrews met the two small boys whose lives he saved off 90 Mile Beach on March 1. And no one was closer to tears than Mr Andrews himself.

Five-year-old Rex Haora Pairama and his 6-year-old cousin Wiremu Bennett-Hati and their classmates welcomed the former soldier to their classroom at Kaitaia Primary School on Thursday, to offer him letters of thanks. Principal Brendon Morrissey was there too, to present Mr Andrews with a certificate recognising his heroism and expressing the gratitude of the boys' school, family and friends.

Mr Andrews and his family had been heading for Ahipara to gather tuatua when they saw that a child had been swept out beyond the surf at Waipapakauri Ramp. A man who according to police had been keeping an eye on the boys had gone into the water but could not swim, and had himself needed rescuing.

The first youngster was 50 or 60 metres beyond the breakers, on his back and kicking, but was going under the water. Mr Andrews assured him, as he got close, that he was there to help him and that he would be okay, then comforted him as he paddled him back to reunite him with his family.

"Before I got back to the beach I saw people further up pointing. I thought they were warning me about a rip, but there was another boy, about 100 metres out from the surf," he said. He too was on his back and kicking but going under.

He went back into the water, this time accompanied by a surfer with a board.

"He disappeared 10 or 15 seconds before I got to him but I managed to grab hold of his hair, then his hand, and pulled him back to the surface. He was crying by the time we got him on the surfboard, which I thought was a good sign," he said.

Both boys were examined by St John and declared to have survived unscathed, although Mr Andrews said yesterday that they had been on the verge of drowning when he got to them.

Last week he told the boys that he was now part of their whanau, and thanked them for the opportunity to once again walk the corridors and where he had played when he had been their age and a pupil at the same school.

Wiremu and Rex were the real heroes, he added. They had known to float on their backs, to kick and not to panic. All he had had to do was pick them up, put them on his boogie board and get them back to the beach.

M Morrissey said he was glad that the boys had remembered the survival skills they had learned at school, while their grandmother, Janet Morunga, again thanked Mr Andrews for returning her mokopuna to their family.

"It was a wake-up call for us. Without you Tangaroa would have taken them. Without you we would have had a double tragedy," she said. "You will always be part of our family, and a big part of our my mokos' lives."