Rotoaira rescue on "Heroes" show

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 10, Issue 487, 25 May 1993, Page 9

Rotoaira rescue on "Heroes" show

BY

RHONDA

DALLY

An act of bravery will be remembered 15 years later in the first series of the 'Heroes' programme which returns to TV2 on Monday 31 May. What makes this programme so special to Ruapehu Bulletin readers is that the story features Julieanne (Pet) McDonnell who then lived in Raetihi and saved the lives of three Turangi children.

Out on the lake that day was a dinghy with a father, his two daughters and a niece. Twenty-six year-old Pet was sitting in her car with her six month-old daughter and four yearold son waiting for her husband and friend to return from fishing when she heard the screams of children near the Waiwhetu Canal. It was a quick thinking young mother who raced into the chilly wa-

ters of Rotoaira. She says her baby was asleep in the car and she made her son stand by the lake, as she plunged into the water where she spent more than half-an-hour saving the two girls, one girl was five years-old, the other 13. The other girl, also aged about 13 made it to shore unaided. Pet reached the girls, told the two older ones to float on their back and kick and then put the

youngest one on her back. At one point Pet was in danger herself with the child choking her in her panicked state. But as Pet recalls today she was very frightened herself. She transferred the child to her front so that they were both more out of the water, than under it. One of the older girls reached the shore first, followed by Pet and the young girl. Pet then re-

turned to the icy waters to bring the other girl back to the shore. Once the children were all safe, she again returned to the water but she couldn't see the man any where. It was when her husband Dennis returned, with his friend towing the dinghy to shore, that they found the body of the father. In 1979 Pet McDonnell received an award for her heroic res-

cue from the 'Royal Humane Society'. Now her bravery is remembered so many years later in the 'Heroes' programme. For the filming of the programme Pet and her husband travelled to Rotorua in February, where they also had an emotional reunion with the girls rescued that day - who now live in Kawerau. Pet says the interview for the TV went off well, but not without a lot of nerves. They then travelled to Kawerau to meet the family. "This is what I was looking forward to as I hadn't seen the family for years and the highlight was to meet my name sake Rangi

Julieanne who is nearly 10 years old". (Rangi is the child of Mere - one of the girls rescued by Pet). "It was wonderful to meet them all again and it was so hard to choke back the tears, I was only of average swimming ability but if I had to do this sort of thing again I wouldn't hesitate," says Pet. Pet and her husband now live in Pipiriki. Remember, if you want to watch the recreation of this rescue it will be on 'Heroes' on Monday 31 May on TV2 at 7.30pm. It was Lyn Green from Turangi, who is a good friend of Julieanne' s, who wrote to the programme about the rescue on Lake Rotoaira in 1978.