A deadly weekend in the water

Muriwai Beach. Photo / Martin Sykes

Three people have drowned this weekend, including two young children.

Today, the body of a four-year-old boy who went missing in Northland last night was found by a commercial diver in a pool beneath a small waterfall.

The boy was noticed to be missing at about 7pm near the Otiria Marae in Moerewa, about 60km north of Whangarei.

His family searched for several hours then alerted police.

It was believed that the boy entered a stream to retrieve a ball, and disappeared into a swimming hole.

An extensive search last night failed to find any sign of him and was resumed this morning.

The boy's name has not yet been released.

Toddler's first swim

Today's tragedy follows the drowning of 2-year-old Nylah Faamanu Vau yesterday. Nylah, of Manurewa, drowned at one of Auckland's top tourist attractions - despite lifeguards being on patrol.

The toddler was found in a 1.6m pool at the Waiwera Thermal Resort north of Orewa about 12.45pm. Lifeguards entered the water but were unable to resuscitate her.

Last night, members of the Vau extended family gathered at the home of Suene Vau, a church minister in Manurewa.

Wiping away tears, Nylah's mother Tee Vau said it was the first time her daughter had been swimming.

"I turned my back for a moment and she was gone. She'd fallen in the deep end. It was her first time ever swimming. I was always against taking her to the pools."

Tee said Nylah's 4-year-old brother Afa Ginuel was waking up and calling out for his sister.

"It's going to be a nightmare for him because he saw everything."

She said there were no fences around the pool and called for safety improvements at the resort. "If they had fences my daughter would still be alive."

Nylah was the fourth preschooler to drown this year, half the annual average.

Her father Manu pleaded with other parents to be vigilant around water. "Look out for your young ones. We don't want other parents to have to go through what what we are experiencing.

"She got pulled out by a lifeguard but it was too late. We do blame ourselves for not being there when she drowned."

The Department of Labour is investigating the death at Waiwera, where at least five others have died since 1981.

One was Justize Jade Dayberg, who drowned in 2002. His mother, Isobel Dayberg, of Albany, was sickened to hear of another preschooler drowning there.

"I know what that family is going through. It shouldn't have happened again, especially when they have spent millions doing up those pools. They should be safer," she said.

The resort, which attracts more than 350,000 visitors a year, remained open despite Nylah's death, surprising customers who were not told about the tragedy.

Pam Corby visited with her grandchildren and was shocked to hear a young girl had died. "It doesn't make you feel good. You'd think they'd close the place."

Jonathan Bell-Booth of Pt Chevalier said there were many Maori and Pacific Island visitors who had certain beliefs about death. "They believe that if a person dies you don't go to that place because it's tapu.

"If they had known a death had taken place there they may have chosen not to go there out of respect."

No one from the resort would comment. General manager Dixon McIver, who managed kickboxing champion Ray Sefo, did not return calls to his cellphone and staff refused to provide an alternative number.

Francis Martin, advisor to the Auckland Council's local board, said officials would look into the resort's lifeguard-to-swimmer ratios. He, too, was surprised the pools had stayed open.

"I would have thought it would have been a bit of a sombre occasion."

Water Safety New Zealand spokesman Matt Claridge said the resort was not part of the ACC PoolSafe Quality Management Scheme. Pools signed up to the scheme are required to have independent assessments in accordance with industry standards developed by the New Zealand Recreation Association and Water Safety New Zealand.

Claridge said pools not part of the scheme were not inspected and were "electing to work outside industry standards and guidelines".

"We don't know what they're offering in supervision or what expectation they place on parents or what information they give parents."

Nylah's drowning comes five years after Huntly coroner Bob McDermott demanded the Government give "urgent attention" to passing legislation to force all public pools to belong to the "poolsafe regime".

Man drowns at dangerous swimming spot

The third drowning was a 52-year-old man who paid the ultimate price for not heeding the warning signs at Muriwai Beach, a notoriously dangerous swimming spot west of Auckland.

The fatality occurred at an isolated area off Rimmer Rd, about 12km from the main beach, around 7.45pm.

It took about 20 minutes for someone to get to a phone and raise the alarm, prompting surf lifeguards and a police helicopter to conduct an urgent search of the area, Muriwai Lifeguard Service chairperson Tim Jago said.

Surfers also helped with the search, but the man's lifeless body was found in the shallows by onlookers a short distance from where he was last seen swimming.

Mr Jago said lifeguards did CPR on the man for about 10 minutes but he had been in the water for more than an hour so chances of reviving him were next to nothing.

Mr Jago said this was the second fatality at the Rimmer Rd area of Muriwai Beach in three weeks.

Both involved swimmers aged 52. "The coincidence doesn't escape us," said Mr Jago.

The previous fatality appeared to be the result of a pre-existing medical condition.

"This flies in the face of all the advice we've for 30 years given to people which is don't swim in isolated locations, especially on an outgoing tide and at that time of night with the sun setting in your eyes - everything works against you," he said.

Police were in the process of contacting the man's next of kin.

Nineteen people drowned in January, 22 per cent of the 2010 total. This weekend's deaths bring the number in February to at least four.