"Oh my God, I think someone's died," a Queenstown woman said to her husband as they watched the search for two French kayakers on Lake Wakatipu from the window of their Fernhill home.
Boating enthusiasts Sue and Spike Wademan heard boat motors on the lake and looked out their bedroom window at 11.11pm on Monday, Mrs Wademan said.
"As boaties, we knew there weren't boats on the lake at night in bad weather and someone was in trouble."
The couple saw two boats on the lake less than 1km away, opposite Cecil Peak.
"You could see these boats from Wynyard Cres [Fernhill] flashing their searchlights and scanning the surface of the lake," Mrs Wademan said.
They saw a flare and thought someone had been found.
"When you see whitecaps on the lake, you know the lake is too rough to be on - that's how we feel as owners of a small boat, never mind a kayak."
"If a kayak hits a wave on the side, that wave can turn them over and if they fall in the water, they're dead in 20 minutes, due to hypothermia."
Mrs Wademan recalled the couple persuaded a drunk young Irish man not to swim across Queenstown Bay two years ago, "because he didn't realise cold can kill".
