Survivor confronts depths of tragedy

By NICOLA BOYES


Kieran Mckay can still picture torch lights beaming through dark water from the helmet of his dead diving buddy.

Eighty metres down a shaft in Nelson's Pearse Resurgence, the lights saved Mr McKay's life.

Now he is reliving the traumatic death of his friend Dave Weaver for a National Geographic television series, titled Expeditions To The Edge.

Filming is under way at Waitomo and involves actors, Mr McKay and other members of the dive team who set out in May 1995 to explore the cave, which leads to a water-filled shaft under Nelson's Mt Arthur.

The tragedy happened during a dive in the shaft, when Mr Weaver passed out and sank. "He stopped on a ledge at about 86-87 metres, I went to lift him and realised I'm not meant to be here. I had to leave him behind," said Mr McKay.

Mr Weavers' body stayed in the cave for 18 months. It was recovered by an Australian dive team.

"I can still see his torch beams in the water. He was lying on his back and I followed his torch beams up to the dive lines, without the lines I wouldn't have got out," he said.

There is no memorial at the site of Mr Weaver's death. He was not that kind of person, Mr McKay says, but the recreation for a TV series would have been "his thing".

Waitomo was chosen for filming because it was safer than where the actual expedition took place.

The programme will feature footage from the original dive, interviews with friends and family of the pair and recreations.