It's been a tragic start to the New Year with three deaths on New Zealand's beaches in the past 48 hours, the latest being a 52-year-old who went diving for crayfish in north Canterbury.
New Zealand has grim drowning statistics - higher per capita than Australia and the UK.
But this summer has been far better than last.
As the evening sun descends, so too did tragedy in Whangaparaoa aftter the drowning of a snorkeler on Monday. The best efforts of police, Coastguard and St John couldn't save them.
Further south in north Canterbury, search teams spent Tuesday scouring Manuka Bay looking for a missing man who'd gone diving for crayfish.
Late on Tuesday afternoon, the 52-year-old's body was found in the water - 24 hours after he'd gone searching for kai with a companion.
All of this comes within 24 hours of a death on Auckland's Bethells Beach after three men got into trouble on New Year's Eve.
Head lifeguard Kael Mead helped rescue two of them separated in the rough water.
"He was almost going under, so it was really good we got there when we did," Mead told Newshub. "Then both swimmers told us that they had lost sight of their friend and he was last seen facedown."
He was eventually found still face down in the water, taken to shore, given CPR and flown to hospital - but he didn't survive.
"Patrol had spoken to everyone saying, 'Do not go swimming as there's no longer flags up,' so if those guys came down after that and missed that message then unfortunately there was no way for them to know," Mead added.
Bethells Beach, like many in New Zealand, can be very dangerous.
Mead had a message for anyone thinking about going swimming this summer.
"It's really, really fundamentally important that you swim between the flags because most West Coast beaches are too dangerous to be swimming somewhere that the lifeguards haven't checked," Mead said.
But this summer's drowning toll, which ends on Wednesday, now sits at three - the summer prior it was 49.
However, authorities said this can't make Kiwis complacent.
"Our sad drowning stats are incredibly tragic and very sad, it is still a male problem in New Zealand," Daniel Gerrard from Water Safety NZ told Newshub.
"Over 85 percent of our fatalities are male, generally older like me. It's that bad behaviour that we need to change, that we aren't bulletproof."
