Shaun Ireton saved four people caught in a rip at Tirohanga Beach, east of Ōpōtiki. Photo / Alan Gibson
Stomach heaving and shoulders burning, Shaun Ireton felt completely spent when the third drowning child that he had just saved spat out vomit and pleaded, 'Please save my dad'.
The fit 48-year-old Whakatāne concreter had spent his whole life in and around the ocean. A fisherman, diver and surfer, the father-of-two knew and respected it.
He also knew that 14 people had died in New Zealand beaches and rivers over the Christmas-New Year period alone – the highest number in 25 years.
So although he was exhausted, and fearful that the raging rip could also take his own life, he turned and swam back into the sea.
Ireton had been camping at Tirohanga Beach Motor Camp and had finished packing up last Friday mid-morning, preparing to hit the road.
But while he and his girlfriend waited for his in-laws to pick them up, he sat watching the waves.
He had spotted a rip the day before. It was still there today and now, six swimmers had unwittingly become caught up in it.
"I said, just hang on, let's wait here," he says.
The swimmers, although appearing competent, were stuck in the same place – between the inshore waves and the outside break.
"You could see that they could swim but they just weren't getting anywhere and next minute the hand went up, followed by another hand," Ireton says.
He leaped into action while his girlfriend phoned 111 and sought help.
As he started running down the beach, one girl battled out of the surf.
He plunged into the water to see how he could help the others.
The first people he reached were two girls about 13 years old.
"One of the girls was upset and crying because, yeah, you could see she was going to go down," Ireton says.
"They had all already used up all their gas. I was scared someone was going to grab me and pull me down.
"I just kept swimming and pushing her in front of me and then pulling her and doing it over again. The other one managed to come with us.
"When I finally got her to shore, I was pretty gassed because it was a strong rip but her brother, who was about 14, was saying, 'Save me!' and I thought, 'S***, here we go."
Ireton swam back out and reached the boy.
He dragged him back in, pushing him forward as waves broke, using nature's momentum, and getting them back to dry land.
"He was really spent," Ireton recalls. "He was spewing up on the beach, coughing up water, but then he says, 'Please save my dad'."
Totally exhausted, he ventured back into the ocean and rescued the boy's father.
Ireton doesn't know where the extra reserves of energy and strength came from.
"Once the boy called out to me, 'Save me', I don't know ... I just did it without thinking."
Meanwhile, the last man managed to make his own way in.
The ordeal was over. All seven of them were now heaving and huffing on the sand.
Two ambulances arrived and looked over five patients, a St John spokeswoman said. They were said to be in a moderate condition, and two in a minor condition. None needed hospital treatment.
Soon, the rescued turned their attentions to their drained saviour.
"There was a lot of love for me that day," Ireton says.
The group – visitors from Rotorua - hugged him and thanked him for saving their lives.
The next day, he received a text message from one of the girls, which "made me feel a bit tearful".
"Hey Shaun, I'm not 100% sure if it's the right Shaun but yesterday a Shaun Ireton saved my family and friends from what could've been a tragic drowning at Tirohanga camp ground. If this is you, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for what you did. Without you, I'd be left without a brother, a father. I'll never forget you and I truly believe you are a living miracle – an angel sent from heaven. You're my hero Shaun."
A humble Ireton plays down his actions and says he acted without thinking, and did what he could.
But he is moved by the young girl's words of gratitude.
"It's pretty special, isn't it?"