By MONIQUE DEVEREUX, South Island correspondent
A young British kayaker who drowned in a swollen West Coast river may have shared her equipment with her companions who earlier lost some of their gear to thieves.
The 19-year-old will not be named until Greymouth police and Interpol track her family in Britain.
She drowned
in the Crooked River, south of Greymouth, on Monday evening, despite the efforts of the men kayaking with her.
The men, one British and one Swedish, had been travelling and kayaking in the South Island together and were last week camping at Lake Mahinapua, south of Hokitika.
As they slept some of their kayaking equipment, which had been left outside their tent, was stolen.
They reported the theft to police, but told locals the loss was enough to make them consider leaving New Zealand because they did not know if they could kayak any more.
However, they continued north and met a 19-year-old British woman who was also a keen and experienced kayaker.
Other travellers staying in Greymouth who talked to the men thought the woman had offered to share some of her gear to enable them to continue their water adventures.
On Monday the trio walked three hours into the bush just south of Greymouth, before starting a kayak trip to Lake Brunner on the Crooked River. But the journey ended in tragedy when the woman and the Swedish man were swept away.
The man was able to get to the river's edge before trying to find the woman. But she had been trapped underwater by a rock.
The British man ran two hours along the river's edge to a Rotomanu farmhouse to call for help and searchers scoured the river for the missing pair.
The man had stayed near where he last saw the woman, to ensure searchers would look for her in the right place, and he was found just before 3am yesterday.
Last night the men were at the Greymouth police station giving their statements to police. The Swedish man had mild hypothermia and both were extremely distraught, Senior Sergeant Cliff Paxton said.
Interpol had been called to help track the woman's family in Britain before her name could be released.
Crooked River is popular for kayaking and is usually rated grade-three difficulty, depending on water volume.
Authorities said recent rain had caused the river to rise on Monday, but they could not say if that altered the degree of difficulty for the kayakers.
