Girls get unlucky dip

Four John Paul College rowers got more than just a training session on Lake Rotorua when their boat began filling with water in choppy conditions.

Constable Regan Framp of the Rotorua police said the 15-year-old girls had set out from the Rotorua lakefront at 6am yesterday and rowed in a quad to Ngongotaha.

They were returning when they got caught in choppy water and waves were breaking over the top of them. Their boat soon filled with water and they began bailing out water.

They were in the water for about 10 minutes before three of them swam to shore at Kawaha Point while the other girl was picked up by a boat which had been following with their coach on board.

Mr Framp said he was not sure how far the girls had swum but he did not think it was far because they could be seen by residents at Kawaha Point who called police.

The three girls who swam ashore were treated by ambulance officers to check for hypothermia.



"They were all fine. Just a little bit cold. They were laughing and joking around like nothing had happened."

The other girl was taken to the Rotorua Lakefront and her three friends were taken back there after being checked by ambulance officers. As far as Mr Framp was aware they were at school yesterday.

The Coastguard boat towed their boat back to the Rotorua Lakefront.

Mr Framp said the girls should not have had any problems finishing their training but it was "unexpected that the weather turned like it did".

He said he had been told that another girl in a single skull had been pulled from her boat by the coach a short time before this incident as the water was becoming choppy.