TWO PEOPLE DIED and nine others rescued after a kayaking trip on New Zealand’s Lake Tekapo was hit by an unexpected weather change.
Police inspector Dave Gaskin, mid-south Canterbury area commander, told Radio New Zealand that those rescued were suffering hypothermia and taken to hospital.
Gaskin said the group was caught by a strong wind on scenic Lake Tekapo in New Zealand’s South Island and had found themselves in the water.
“They got into difficulty when they’d unexpectedly been hit by a strong wind, and they’d been pushed further out into the lake,” he told the broadcaster.
“We think they were in the water — they’d been swamped, and they’d come out of their kayaks — and they’d been in the water for up to an hour.”
A local resident, who did not want to be named, told the New Zealand Herald that there had been a very strong wind on the lake on Friday afternoon although the newspaper said no official weather warnings were in place.
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