The holiday drowning toll is a "huge disappointment", Water Safety New Zealand says.

Family tells how their holiday sightseeing trip turned into rescue operation after spotting stricken men in the water: "You just think about trying to find the next person."

Police have named three people who have died in water-related accidents so far this holiday season.

Family members of a missing teenager were keeping an emotional vigil on a Northland beach last night - the latest incident in a horror start to the holiday season in the water.

A grieving mother is pleading with parents never to leave their young children alone in water after her infant son drowned in a bath.

Media personality Duncan Garner is swapping his blazer for a lifejacket this summer - and is calling on boaties to remember theirs too.

A Bluff woman has been named New Zealand's champion of water safety.

A man's fatal decision to go swimming after drinking at a party has his family urging others not to make the same mistake.

The national drowning toll for the first two months of the year rose to 35, after 15 drownings in February.

Six preschoolers have drowned so far this year - equalling the total for 2010 - and water safety campaigners say it is a shocking start to the year.

The drowning death toll will rise if school swimming lessons aren't made compulsory, the Government has been warned.

Figures released today showed 98 people drowned last year, the second lowest annual toll since records began in 1980.