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Source: Reuters
A man watched in horror as his mate was swept off the rocks at a remote Dunedin fishing spot and drifted out to sea on Wednesday.
After 20 minutes in the chilling sea, 30-year-old Glenn Coleman was picked up by a passing fishing boat.
Both his ankles were broken and he had suffered a badly gashed knee.
Coleman, a freezing worker, and his mate Allen Taylor had taken the day off to go fishing near the lighthouse at Cape Saunders east of the Dunedin.
Taylor has told the Otago Daily Times how he saw Coleman lifted off the rocks by a rogue wave and dragged out to sea.
He said he felt "so helpless" as he had nothing to throw to Coleman to assist him and was "not that flash a swimmer".
Taylor ran for 20 minutes to reach an area with cellphone coverage and called police, who contacted a nearby fishing boat, which then picked up Coleman.
The man had been carried about 100m out to sea.
Senior Constable Lox Kellas says the rocks below the Cape Saunders lighthouse are popular with fishermen but can be dangerous.
Two people were swept to their deaths from the Puddingstone Rock, north of Cape Saunders, in 1991.
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