Wahine survivor 'devastated' at rescuer's death

SEEKING HER HERO: Wahine survivor Kate Watson (then McGibbon, aged 19) and her rescuer Eroni Vaceucau pictured 40 years ago on the rocky beach on the Pencarrow Coast.

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A Fijian man who pulled a young woman from the water during the Wahine disaster would have been "over the moon" about seeing her again but he died about five years ago, a friend said today.

In one of the classic Wahine photos, Eroni Vakacegu, also known as Vaceucau, a young medical student when the vessel struck rocks, is seen with his arm around Kate Watson (then McGibbon), who was 19.

Now living in Queenstown, Watson said she met Vaceucau on the deck and he told her to follow him into the sea. However, she had not put her life jacket on properly and it flipped over her head.

He pulled her into safety in a dinghy.

After reaching the shore Mr Vakacegu went back into the water to rescue a small boy off a rock.

Ms Watson has been searching recently for Mr Vakacegu after not seeing him again, but learned last night in a phone call to Suva that he died five years ago.

"If I had found him after the incident I would have flown all the way to Fiji just to say thank you," she told the Fiji Times. "I feel really sad about this (his death). I feel devastated. I hoped and prayed that he was still alive so that I could say thank you."

A friend of Mr Vakacegu, Michael Maran, contacted NZPA today after news of Ms Watson's search reached him.

Mr Maran, a former teacher who has lived in New Zealand for the past 21 years, said he had known Mr Vakacegu since being posted at a school in Fiji many years ago and the pair had been drinking buddies.

He said Mr Vakacegu had been from a "very chiefly family" and was fondly remembered.

Mr Vakacegu's memory of the Wahine had remained "very vivid" over the years.

"(The) Wahine disaster was something he constantly spoke about at gatherings. He always talked about the Pencarrow rocks (where the pair's lifeboat landed).

"He said there was not only one, but three or four people that he saved that day. He remembered that child and he remembered this woman.

"In Fiji, the sea is part of people's life so they are very good swimmers. But the cold water is something that remained very, very clear in his mind. The waters were very cold, `icy cold' he used to say."

Mr Vakacegu left New Zealand without graduating from Otago University, where he had been studying in 1968, eventually going into banking with Barclays bank in Fiji instead.

"He was very well heeled at one time in his life. Living the high life, (as) an assistant bank manager," Mr Maran said.

Mr Maran said Mrs Watson was welcome to get in touch with him if she wanted to learn about her rescuer.

"I've got people in Fiji she can contact and go and visit. If she wants to go and visit his grave or the family then she can do that."

Ms Watson said today she was touched by that and would get in touch with him.

- With NZPA