[ad_1]
SUPPLIED
Paora Ropiha with members of the Coast Guard Aaron Boyle and Adrian Brown.
About half an hour after diving in clear, calm waters, Paora Ropiha surfaced to find that the wind was howling and her kayak’s anchor had come loose.
Paora, 21, her father Winton, 52, and younger brother Wiremu, 13, had paddled kayaks to a reef in Turihaua, north of Gisborne, around 8 a.m. M. From Sunday.
It is a reef that they know well and practice freediving regularly.
“We met a partner on a boat to meet at the site about 200 meters from the shore,” said Ropiha. Stuff Monday.
READ MORE:
* One dead, three rescued after yacht ran into trouble near Bay of Islands
* Nine children in an inflatable flamingo rescued on Auckland beach.
* A Kiwi yacht rescued a shipwrecked British family on a remote Pacific reef.
“The conditions were good. The sea was flat and there was little or no wind. Dad and I jumped in and started our dive, ”he said.
But 30-45 minutes later, Ropiha noticed that the northwest wind, offshore, had become so strong that it had dropped the anchor used by the kayaks, and they were adrift.
SUPPLIED
Paora Ropiha with members of the Coast Guard (left to right) David McIntyre, Aaron Boyle and Adrian Brown.
“The anchor was dangling, so I dropped all my gear and swam to the kayaks. I tried to re-dig the anchor. Wiremu was still in a kayak, so I took his kayak apart and he paddled out to the boat, and they all went ashore, “he said.
Wiremu and the others raised the alarm and began a search that involved the Search and Rescue Police, the Coast Guard and the New Zealand Rescue Coordination Center.
“Dad and I got into our kayaks, took off all our snorkel gear and tied it to the kayaks, then we tried to paddle. But the wind was so strong by then that we were backing up while trying to paddle forward.” Ropiha said.
The sea turned rough and the wind whipped the water in their faces. Their kayaks flipped several times.
“Then we walked away from each other. I decided to put the scuba gear back on and tried to swim. At that stage we had drifted another 200 m towards the sea. Dad decided to stay in his kayak and go adrift. It went with the wind, ”said Ropiha.
Turihaua, north of Gisborne, on a good day.
Ropiha held up her kayak and swam to shore.
“The helicopter flew over me. I was just pointing to the sea and yelling ‘get out there’. Then the coast guard pulled up next to me. I told them to find my dad first, but they said I had to get on the boat first. I was ready to leave my kayak behind, but they also threw it into the boat, ”he said.
“So we started the search for dad. They had calculated how far it would have strayed by then, about an hour after the wind hit us. It took us between an hour and a half and two hours to find it. We couldn’t see land from where we found it. “
Winton had been blown up about 15 miles offshore.
“I burst into tears when I saw it. I was thinking the worst. We couldn’t see land from where he was, ”Ropiha said.
“I knew it would be nice if he stayed in his kayak,” he said.
The couple were taken back to shore where a crowd of family and friends was waiting for them and “we received an attack from everyone,” Paora said.
He said that he and his entire family were extremely grateful to those involved in the rescue.
