Proposal joy... then swim tragedy

Matthew Hawkins and Emily Harper. Photo / Supplied

On Monday night, American tourist Matthew Hawkins felt the heights of joy as his girlfriend said "yes" when he asked her to marry him.

The next day, he faced the depths of tragedy as he fought to save his fiancee's life in the Marlborough Sounds.

Emily May Harper, 27, of Denver, Colorado, was swimming with the dolphins in Tory Channel on Tuesday morning when she was found floating face down in the water.

She is thought to have died of natural causes, but Mr Hawkins is perplexed by her death.

As far as he knew, she was fit and healthy.

What turned out to be the couple's last night together had been memorable for all the right reasons, a grieving Mr Hawkins told the Herald yesterday.

He and Ms Harper were walking together at Picton Harbour, watching the lights reflecting off the water, when Mr Hawkins seized the moment.

"I came up to her from behind and gave her a hug, and I said to her, 'We should get married'. And she said, 'What, are you serious?' And I said, 'Yeah, I think I am'. And then she said, 'Yes, absolutely'.

"She never got to see the ring, because it was buried in my mum's purse. I got a little excited and asked her a couple of days before I planned to. I meant to ask her in Auckland, but the setting was just perfect."

Next morning, the pair sailed out into the Marlborough Sounds with Mr Hawkins' mother Sandra and brother Andrew on a Dolphin Watch Ecotours vessel.

Mr Hawkins had to stay in the boat while the other three went into the water with the dolphins, because the zipper was missing from his wetsuit.

"Emily was the first person to be in line to get in the water. She was so excited, she really was. She loved animals, she loved wildlife and this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

Although a competent swimmer, she was a bit nervous at first, he said. But she soon became comfortable in the water among the dolphins.

"Emily kept giving me a thumbs-up signal while she was in the water.

"And since I couldn't be in the water, I busied myself by helping the guides point people to where the dolphins were going.

"I took my eyes off Emily for barely a second, and I saw someone face down in the water. I had looked for my mum and my brother for a second, and then I looked back.

"There was another woman on the trip who had a very similar build to Emily, and my immediate thought was, 'Oh God, someone's down'.

"And I yelled, 'Man down', and one of the guides tore her jacket off and dived in, over the spinning propellers, and went out to her and dragged her back to the boat. We pulled her up to the boat and started CPR."

Mr Hawkins' mother is a nurse, and he has received CPR training. An anaesthetist who was on the trip administered oxygen.

"I did compressions myself for 35 minutes straight. I did CPR until my arms gave out. It took us probably 40-45 minutes to get to shore, and all this time efforts were being made.

"My mother was breathing for her between compressions. When my arms gave out, I breathed for her and my mother did compressions. We tried so hard to save her."

Mr Hawkins said paramedics took over and tried "admirably" to save her, "but there was nothing we could do".

"I stayed with her in the ambulance until we reached Blenheim. I only left her when the [police] officer said we have to let the coroner do their job."

He said Ms Harper - whom he would always remember as his wife - never had a bad word to say about anyone. "She saw the world differently than everyone else I know. She tried to find that one little bit of good in anybody, regardless of how horrid a person they were.

"She was a homebody and her greatest passions were spiritual studies, spending time with her cats, and watching movies, reading. Just enjoying the little things in life.

"She loved horror movies ... She was not a party girl. She did not drink, she did not smoke.

"She was just a good person ... and she loved me. We never went to bed mad at each other."

Mr Hawkins said their friends referred to them as an "old married couple".

They had known each other for 14 years, since school, but drifted apart before reuniting about two years ago.

Ms Harper had recently lost her job as a medical claims technician, because of the recession, and had been looking for a new post.

Mr Hawkins is a student at the University of Colorado, studying theatrical lighting design.

The trip to New Zealand and Australia was a graduation gift from Mr Hawkins' brother, but also was meant to be an early honeymoon.

They had planned to go to Australia after New Zealand, but will now be going home early for Ms Harper's funeral.

Mr Hawkins said that despite the tragedy, the trip to New Zealand had been a "wonderful vacation".

"I suppose that if something like this has to happen on vacation, then it's good to be surrounded in a foreign country by people who are friendly to Americans."