The pair swam an hour to reach the island and once ashore, used matches from their waterproof survival kit to light a fire.

The skipper of a Coastguard boat who rescued two divers after they became separated from their boat in waters near Kāpiti, north of Wellington, says the scenario is the stuff of nautical nightmares.

The divers were dragged south in swift currents, but managed to swim to a nearby island and even had provisions to light a fire, alerting the Westpac Rescue Helicopter to their location.

Coastguard skipper Mark Davidson told Checkpoint police were alerted by the diver’s partners - who were waiting on the diver’s boat - that they had lost contact with the men about 5pm on Sunday.

  • @[email protected]
    3•3 months ago

    This is an area that’s quite familiar to me, as I’ve done a few circumnavigations of Kapiti, I’ve also landed on Fisherman’s/motungarara before, as well as Brown’s island next to it.

    The tides through that area are vicious, to the point where a trip in the area has to be planned around them, you can’t overcome the flow for any length of time, especially for a circumnavigation.

    They were definitely lucky to make the island. I wonder where they landed? There are actually houses out there, on the northern end.