The Queenstown family of the toddler who drowned in Lake Wakatipu on Tuesday say they are ''absolutely devastated'' by the loss of their ''beautiful daughter''.
Police yesterday named the child as Violet Elisabeth Waples (34 months), after her next of kin were informed.
Parents Andrew and Alana Waples said in a statement they ''would like to thank the police, coast guard and St John ambulance as well as our neighbours and community for their amazing response.
We are surrounded with family and friends and are blown away by the love that is being sent our way from near and far. Thank you for your prayers.''
The Wapleses asked for privacy and said funeral arrangements had yet to be confirmed.
Queenstown police are rejecting criticism surrounding Tuesday's search for the toddler after several local boaties raised concerns they were not informed about the search.
The toddler drowned after she wandered from her Kelvin Heights home. Searchers found her face down in the lake at 12.45pm, about 100m from where she was last seen.
Veteran commercial operators said they could have helped search, something that had been agreed would happen in such instances, after two Frenchmen drowned kayaking on Lake Wakatipu in 2010.
Queenstown police chief Senior Sergeant John Fookes said Tuesday's drowning began as a land-based search and boaties were making assumptions.
''Initially there was no suggestion the water was involved. It's not infrequent that we get calls from people with missing kids and also invariably these things work out.
"Probably half the time the child is still in the premises and has concealed itself somewhere,'' Snr Sgt Fookes said.
A veteran boatie, who did not want to be named, said there were several boat users in the area who could have helped search. Boaties listened to an incident unfolding on an emergency channel, but were unable to decipher police codes.
''There isn't a boat operator who wouldn't put all of his resources and staff into finding a child who'd fallen into the water, or any bugger who had fallen into the water,'' the boatie said.
Mr Fookes said boaties would have been informed had it been a marine search, adding police alerted Coastguard and Kawarau Jet as a precaution, and to provide an offshore perspective on the land search.
The child's body was found within 20 minutes by police, soon after the lake edge became a focus of the search.
APNZ reported Mr and Mrs Waples moved to Queenstown from the Hibiscus Coast, north of Auckland, last year. Mr Waples, originally from Southland, works as a builder and Mrs Waples is a pastor.
They are both involved in the C3 Church, Frankton. Violet is survived by three siblings, Jacob, Elle, and younger brother Reuben.
The matter has been referred to the coroner.
