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Briton dies during kayaking trip on lake in New Zealand Briton and American confirmed killed during lake kayaking trip in New Zealand
(about 4 hours later)
A Briton has died in a kayaking accident on a lake in New Zealand. Two tourists killed in a freak storm while kayaking on a New Zealand lake have been identified by police as a Briton and an American, police said.
Two tourists were killed in the incident at Lake Tekapo, in Canterbury, in the South Island, reported the BBC. Police said Daniel Thomas Hollnsteiner, 21, of New York, and 20-year-old James Robert Murphy from London were among a group of 11 kayakers who hit bad weather after heading out onto Lake Tekapo on Friday afternoon.
The pair were said to have been hit by strong winds that tipped them into the water. Nine other people were rescued. Nine survivors were treated for hypothermia after spending up to an hour in the freezing waters, with some swimming to a nearby island before being rescued.
The names of the victims have not been released, but local media said they were men in their 20s. Police inspector Dave Gaskin said: “Lake Tekapo’s an extremely dangerous lake, it’s extremely savage. It’s very, very cold, the winds get up very quickly.”
A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We can confirm the death of a British national in New Zealand. We are providing support to the family and are in contact with the New Zealand authorities.” “It appears their boats got swamped and they were tipped out ... they’ve just got caught out by a freak wind, unfortunately here we do get freak winds too regularly.”
New Zealand police confirmed in a statement that two overseas tourists had died. The deceased were students at Australia’s Monash University who were in New Zealand’s South Island on a semester break. It was not yet known how many of the others were studying at the Melbourne institution.
“The two were members of a group of young people who hired kayaks for a trip on Lake Tekapo. They ran into difficulty after venturing out on the lake and being swamped after an easterly wind picked up to an estimated 20 knots.” The university said in a statement: “Our university community is deeply saddened by the news of the tragic deaths of two of our students in a kayaking accident on the South Island of New Zealand.”
It added: “All survivors were suffering from hypothermia and a small number required hospitalisation at Timaru hospital. An investigation will take place, looking at the reasons this tragedy occurred.” “Monash has sent a senior member of our management team to New Zealand to support the other students there at this difficult time.”
Three members of the group received hospital treatment overnight Friday but police said they were expected to be discharged within hours.
Police said investigations into the cause of the tragedy would continue over the weekend and the matter would be referred to the coroner.
A UK Foreign Office spokesman said: “We can confirm the death of a British national in New Zealand. We are providing support to the family and are in contact with the New Zealand authorities.”
A local resident, who did not want to be named, told the New Zealand Herald there had been a very strong wind on the lake on Friday afternoon although the newspaper said no official weather warnings had been in place at the time.
Press Association and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report