Dead kayakers named

Police have released the names of the two French kayakers found dead by a night-vision equipped search and rescue helicopter on Lake Wakatipu early yesterday morning.

Kayakers had little chance in cold lake

They are Yoann Lucien Georges Firdion (24), an English language student, of Paris, and Raphael Serge Soubrier (21), a shop assistant, of Chartres, in central France.

Both men were living in Queenstown on one-year working holiday visas and arrived in New Zealand in September and October.

Otago Southland coroner David Crerar is in Queenstown today investigating the deaths. Iit is not yet known if a coronial inquest will follow the post mortem, which began yesterday.

Queenstown Police were advised by the French Consul in Wellington that  the men's next of kin had been informed of their deaths.