Glenorchy residents remain nervous about the dangers of visitors swimming near the Rees River mouth since two drownings within a week last year, a community leader says.
Glenorchy Community Association chairman John Glover said the deaths of Wānaka man Leroy Kaaho on January 13 last year, and Australian tourist Jonathan Young six days later, came as a shock to everyone.
Safety measures taken by the Queenstown Lakes District Council since the tragedies had been a good response, but a "sense of nervousness" remained, Mr Glover said.
"All we can do is keep an eye out, make sure we’ve got safety equipment there, and the signs."
In her findings on the men’s deaths, coroner Meenal Duggal said they both drowned while trying to rescue children swept into Lake Wakatipu while playing in the nearby river channel.
She endorsed the council’s efforts to improve safety measures at that location, but said more could be done, particularly in "raising awareness and educating the public" about the hazards posed by the district’s rivers and lakes.
The coroner said Mr Kaaho, 48, was on the beach near the river’s outlet on January 13 when two of his three children began swimming in the river.
Both were swept into the lake by its current, and although one managed to swim back to shore, his 10-year-old son kept drifting out into the lake.
Mr Kaaho swam out to help him, but got into difficulty and began yelling for help.
Another man managed to bring the boy back to shore, but saw Mr Kaaho disappear.
Attempts by others at the scene to find him were unsuccessful.
Six days later, Mr Young, 35, was by the lake with his fiancee when he saw another man go to the aid of a young boy in the same location.
The man reported feeling a "massive undercurrent" after he reached the child.
As he struggled to stay afloat, he urged the boy to float on his back and swim for the shore.
Mr Young then swam out to help the boy, who by now was about 10m from safety.
He pulled the boy towards the shore for a few metres before he, too, got into difficulty.
As his fiancee and others urged him to keep swimming, she saw his head "bobbing up and down" before he disappeared under the water.
On both occasions, search and rescue efforts with boats and helicopters were unsuccessful, and the men’s bodies were recovered by the police dive squad.
The coroner said both men were described as capable swimmers.
Pathology reports found the cause of their deaths to be drowning, and toxicology analyses of their blood were unremarkable.
At the time, there had been two signs on the nearby jetty, warning of the river’s currents and other hazards.
The council had since placed life rings on the jetty and at the beach, put up new warning signs, and its waterways contractors had had a "heightened presence" in the area during the summer months, she said.
Mr Glover said residents had since tried to understand why there had been a "very specific hazard that nobody had experienced before".
At the time of the tragedies, the river had been entering the lake through a single, narrow channel instead of the usual several channels.
That had combined with a low lake level to create a "tipping face" at the outlet where the lake’s depth suddenly dropped away and generated a strong undertow.
During a period of warm weather, visitors unfamiliar with the area’s hazards had decided to play in the channel.
Although the additional safety measures taken by the council were laudable, there was a limit to what could be done to safeguard people in the district’s extensive waterways, he said.
"In the end, it’s education of the type that Water Safety New Zealand does."
