Notorious fishing spot on North Island's west coast has claimed 18 lives

Tuesday, 26 September 2017

Caroline Swann has lived at Papanui Point for decades, in that time numerous people have drowned at the point and the adjoining Ruapuke Beach (video first published in 2017).

The gnarled and isolated coastline of Ruapuke is an unforgiving place.

In the 73 years farmer Caroline Swann has lived at the rugged west coast spot the ocean has claimed 18 souls.

The Hamilton fisherman who plunged into the sea off the rocks during an early morning fish on Monday will likely be the 19th.

Caroline Swann has lived at Papanui Point for 73 years, in that time 18 people have drowned at the point and the adjoining beach.

Some have been swamped by waves, others have lost their footing and tumbled into the roiling seas.

Swann has kept records of almost every death.

The coastline at Ruapuke on the North Island's west coast can be dangerous for fishing.

Their names and the dates they were snatched by the sea have been typewritten on paper and tucked among old newspaper clippings into a beige box.

It sits nestled amid the hoards of porcelain swans beneath shearing ribbons tacked to the walls of the original weathered homestead Swann's parents built on Ruapuke's rolling hills in the late 1930s.

Caroline Swann keeps records of deaths and near drownings observed over her 73 years at Papanui Point.

At the tip of her 300 acre plot is Papanui Point.

People flock to the spot to fish for gurnard and kahawai. At times huge schools of snapper roll in.

Raglan-based Gallagher Coast Guard along with two jet skis and a plane are currently searching for the man.

The missing man in his 60s had left his home in Hamilton in the early hours of Monday to travel to that spot where he spent the morning casting off the rocks.

Somehow he ended up in the water and was last seen off the Ruapuke rocks at 11.14am.

Caroline Swann's family homestead has stood near Papanui point since the 1930s.

His fishing rod and bag were found nearby.

'The sea is dangerous - you just don't know what it's going to do,' Swann said on Tuesday, as police entered the second day of the search.

Police are looking for a Hamilton man who reportedly fell off the rocks while fishing near Raglan.

'Never turn your back on the sea - you never know what its going to do.'

On a wild Tuesday afternoon it's easy to see how you could get into trouble at the notoriously dangerous spot.

From the tip of Papanui Pt gale force gusts pummel the cliff-face, leaving even the seagulls battling in the wind.

Below, next to where the fisherman disappeared, squally three metre swells roll onto the black sands.

Swann knows the perils of this patch, having lived on it her whole life. Her ancestors settled here in 1884.

Over the years she's lost friends to the sea. In 1970 her mate Jack McCracken drowned. He was 52.

'He used to come out and camp within the flax. He was fishing when he fell in. I don't know why he fell, he fished there all the time.

'His body was never found. There's been about five or six bodies that have never been found.'

She won't easily forget the policeman who drowned after falling into the sea when he lost his footing while attempting to navigate around the cliff. Or the two children who were swept out to sea.

There's something about this coastline, Swann says, maybe it's cursed.

She's been told a tale of a warring tribe running along the beach to kill 300 Māori before hurling their bodies into the sea.

'Whether its cursed, or not, I don't know - its possible, it could be something spiritual.'

Then there's what Swann calls the 'lucky ones'. The ones who have managed to survive the sea.

'There's a lot who have got out. It all depends on where the currents are and how the sea is.'

She knows of one struggling swimmer who managed to grab hold of a surfcaster line and was pulled to safety.

Another father used to bring his sons to fish off the Ruapuke rocks, Swann says. They've grown up and got married, and haven't been back in years.

'Their wives won't let them come again. They want husbands, not want dead ones.'

Over the years an emergency phone has been installed and life rings have been bolted to the rock face in attempts to help stop fishermen from falling in.

Swann hadn't heard much about the man who was swept off the rocks on Monday, but did see what she believes was his car being towed from the carpark on Monday afternoon.

'You do feel for the families - another one lost here and you wish it didn't happen.'

In Swann's experience once you end up in the sea you only have less than an hour to survive.

Waikato Search and Rescue Sergeant Vince Ranger said a land based search along the Ruapuke rocks and beach turned up no further clues on Tuesday.

'He was out there fishing and was seen in the water - that's about all we know at this stage. How he came to be in the water is anybody's guess.'

He said the gnarly spot of coast was a notoriously dangerous fishing spot.

Police had spoken to the man's family but were not yet in a position to release the man's name.

'Just not knowing will be pretty tough on the family.'

Ranger said police would reassess the search area.

'The more time we spend without finding him the less chance there is of finding him.'