A scuba diver who recovered the body of a drowned teenager from an Otago lake says he did it for his family.
The 19-year-old drowned in Lake Dunstan on Saturday (file photo). Photo: 123rf
A 19-year-old man, who has not yet been named, drowned on the Kawarau River arm of Lake Dunstan, near Cromwell, on Saturday afternoon.
Cromwell plasterer and diver Rob Horne retrieved the young man's body from five metres down.
Mr Horne was driving past when a woman flagged him down, yelling that someone was drowning.
"We slammed the brakes on."
Mr Horne said he and his girlfriend, Amber, leapt out of their car and ran to the water's edge.
They removed their shirts and shoes then jumped in the water.
"We could only see a lady and a small child at the time, so we sort of raced in, they were probably three or four metres from the water's edge, but it was already over head height and I couldn't touch the bottom.
"My girlfriend, Amber, grabbed the little kid, and I grabbed the lady. Just as I grabbed her, she was going down, her nose was under the water."
He said the lake was deeper than usual at the moment. It was quickly over head height.
They rescued the woman and the six-year-old girl from near the shore.
"As I was pulling her out of the water, there was another guy there, they were all in the same party.
"He was yelling out, 'my son, my son' and pointing to the pontoon, but the visibility, like you could hardly see your feet, so it was probably only a metre or so."
He searched for 20 minutes, but could not find the teenager.
Mr Horne said he thought it would take the police dive squad three days to get to the scene and recover the body.
So he borrowed a car, went home to get his scuba-diving gear and recovered the body from the lake, about 5m down.
"It was a little bit hard. I've never seen a dead body, or ever had to touch one, but I just wanted to do the right thing for the family."