Water-related death in Takapuna, Auckland amid horror week on water

A person is dead after a “water incident” at a Takapuna address this morning - the third water-related death in Auckland’s northern suburbs in less than 24 hours.

Emergency services went to the address in response to “a water incident”, but the person was found to be dead, police say.

“The death will be referred to the Coroner.”

The death follows two in Auckland yesterday afternoon, and comes after a horror week saw six others die in water-related incidents around the country.

Yesterday’s deaths occurred first at Narrow Neck Beach about 4.30pm and about half an hour later at Big Manly Beach, on the Whangaparāoa Peninsula.

In both cases swimmers were brought ashore by others, but couldn’t be revived. Their deaths have been referred to the Coroner.

The alarm was raised at Narrow Neck Beach when someone pointed to an “upside-down” woman about 10 metres away from him in the water and asked, ‘Is she all right?’, one rescuer told the Herald.

He turned her over and pulled her to shore, where an off-duty lifeguard and about 15 others tried to help the unresponsive woman before an ambulance arrived.

“[But] there was nothing we could do.”

And half an hour later, further up the coastline at Little Manly Beach, bystanders also pulled an unresponsive man from the water, Manly resident Johnny Lind told the Herald.

“He was swimming and we saw, out of our window, his buttocks sticking up. We thought he may have been snorkelling, as a lot of people do that here.”

Emergency services tried to help the man, shielding him with sheets, Lind said.

“I could see he was totally white. His face was completely pale.”

Police later confirmed the man had died.

It has been a deadly week in the water across the country, with other lives lost in Otago and Coromandel.

An engaged man from Australia disappeared after trying to save a child in Lake Wakatipu near Glenorchy on Thursday, with his body found yesterday.

In a separate but similar incident at the same spot in Otago, a man died week earlier.

Leroy Kaaho, also known as Linkin Kisling, died while trying to rescue his son in Lake Wakatipu.

Emergency services rushed to the mouth of the Rees River where Leeroy Kaaho, 48, also known as Linkin Kisling, of Wanaka, died after going in to help his 10-year-old son, who survived.

A rescue helicopter found a man, unresponsive, after he went missing in the water at Whangamatā on Tuesday night, the first of a string of deaths in the Coromandel.

Husband and father Ian Cruickshank died at nearby Ōpoutere Beach on Wednesday after the extended family group he was with got into trouble in the water.

This afternoon police confirmed the body of another person in the group, who had been missing since the incident, had been found at nearby Slipper Island/Whakahau.

The person is yet to be identified, but the Herald has previously reported the missing person was Cruickshank’s son, Samuel Cruickshank.

Multiple members of the same extended family got into trouble in the water at Opoutere Beach on Wednesday.

The partner of one of Cruickshank’s daughters was also with the family and had to be airlifted to hospital, where he is recovering.

One person also died the next day in a water-related incident near Coroglen, also in Coromandel.