Piha drowning survivor 'broken' after death of childhood friends

Tuesday, 24 January 2023

Survivor Apurva Modi, centre, is mourning the loss of his friends Saurin Nayakumar Patel, left, and Anshul Shah, right.

A man who lost his two friends in a drowning at Auckland’s Piha Beach blames himself for the tragedy.

Apurva Modi was swimming with Saurin Nayakumar Patel and Anshul Shah on Saturday when the trio got into trouble. Patel and Shah later died.

The friends were swimming in shallow water, holding hands, but the waves were so strong they suddenly got sucked underwater, family member Jaimini Joshi said.

“Apurva Modi, who knew swimming, held hands of Saurin Nayakumar Patel for about seven minutes, but he couldn’t hear anything and lost touch.”

* Person has died after water-related incident at Tāwharanui Peninsula

Anshul Shah, second from right, and Saurin Nayakumar Patel, third from right, pose with their friends and family members.

* Death of Auckland student who went missing at Piha was self inflicted, Coroner says

Modi, 30, was best friends with Patel. They grew up in the same neighbourhood in Ahmedabad, India.

Former Water Safety NZ chief executive Jonty Mills talks about how to stay safe in the water over summer. (First published 17 December 2020)

“Modi is shaken. He is broken. He is blaming himself for the tragedy,” Joshi said.

“He said he didn’t have courage to take the body to his best friend’s grandparents in India.”

Patel, 27, came to New Zealand to study engineering.

Shah, 32, arrived just two-and-a-half months ago and worked as a cashier at a fuel station.

Joshi said Shah’s wife recently lost her father and brother to Covid-19 and this was the third tragedy for her.

“Shah’s wife came to New Zealand after the couple got married in 2018. Due to travel restrictions, Shah couldn’t travel and had to wait for almost two years to see his wife. He came to New Zealand in November 2022.

“His wife had not overcome the grief of losing her parents and brother, and now she is left with [just] her sister in India. Life has been so cruel to her.”

Joshi said there was a need to spread more awareness about beach safety. She asked that people not blame one particular community for the drownings.

“I was told by someone that Indians drown because they are not aware [about beach safety]. Six people have died across Auckland [in one weekend]. All of them were not Indians.

”I think there is a need to spread awareness. The six lives could have been saved if there was enough patrolling after 6pm [on beaches] and if people were aware that lifeguard leave patrolling on beaches after 6pm.”

Joshi said the Indian High Commission was in touch with the families of the victims.

They were looking for an airline that could send the bodies to India as soon as possible.

The family has created a Givealittle page to raise funds to send their bodies back.

A post-mortem of the bodies was done on Tuesday.