• John Schofield, 74, was rescued after being knocked out by freak waves while fishing at Ōtaki Beach.
• A nearby woman and a kite surfer saved Schofield after finding him face-down in the water.
• Schofield was flown to hospital in a serious condition and is now recovering at home.

A pensioner is lucky to be alive after two bystanders rushed to his aid when multiple freak waves knocked him out while he was fishing and left him face-down in the water.

John Schofield, 74, had plans to visit his sister for coffee after a spot of fishing at Ōtaki Beach north of Wellington yesterday.

Instead, the father of three ended up being flown to hospital and put straight into the intensive care unit.

One of Schofield’s daughters told the Herald her father was recovering at home on Sunday, but was “quite tired and zoned-out”.

She said there was little Schofield could remember of his ordeal.

“He ended up stepping just a bit further in the water for his second cast, and as he did, he said two strong waves hit him. He lost his balance and as he was trying to get back up, another wave hit him, then another.

“He remembers dog-paddling and he said that he just tried so hard to get back to the shore, and he said he almost got one foot on the ground but then another wave hit him.”

A woman fishing nearby saw it unfold and flagged down a man who was kite surfing to help. Schofield has been in contact with the woman and another daughter has been in touch with the kite surfer.

“He said that when he got to my dad, he was face-down in the water with just the back of his head showing.

“He thought he was now having to check whether this person was alive. He said when he rolled him over, he didn’t expect to find anything as such.

“But the next thing he knew, my dad opened his eyes and took a gasp of breath. He said that he would have just had seconds left.”

Schofield’s daughter read out text messages from the kite surfer to him last night.

“I was reading those messages because he wasn’t so much aware of what happened, because he just said he felt like he was in a dream.

“He was face-down, and then he said it was suddenly bright and it was daytime. When I read all that out, I think it definitely hit home for him, and for all of us, how close it was.”

A police spokeswoman told the Herald they got a report of the incident about 2pm yesterday, and confirmed a man was brought to shore by members of the public then taken to hospital in a serious condition.

Schofield is planning to meet his two saviours. And his daughter wants to meet the policeman who phoned her about the incident to give her thanks.

“He just thinks they’re absolutely the most amazing people ever. When he meets them, I think all of us want to meet them too and say thank you.”

His daughter said the incident had “put everything into perspective” and made her disregard “all those small things that you sometimes get hung up about”.

While the family waited outside the ICU, they dried out the Lotto tickets Schofield had on him in light of the chance of fate handed to him earlier. There were no winning tickets in the end, but Schofield’s daughter reckoned he had used up all his luck for the day.

Raphael Franks is an Auckland-based reporter who covers business, breaking news and local stories from Tāmaki Makaurau. He joined the Herald as a Te Rito cadet in 2022.