Teen killed in Whangārei’s Abbey Caves had concerns about trip, grieving mother says

Source: Radio New Zealand

A grieving Northland mother has told a Coroner’s inquest she hopes no other family has to suffer the pain of losing a child on a school trip.

Karnin Petera, who was 15, died during a Whangārei Boys’ High School trip to Abbey Caves in May 2023.

Sixteen other Year 11 boys and two adult instructors managed to get out of the cave alive after an underground creek turned into a torrent during heavy rain.

The school has already been prosecuted by WorkSafe – it was ordered to pay $500,000 in reparations to the victims – but Thursday was the start of what was expected to be a week-long inquest.

Coroner Alexander Ho acknowledged family members in court and those who had tried, in challenging conditions, to bring the boys to safety.

He also warned them the inquest could force them to “relive awful events” and answer tough questions.

“For all of you who were involved in the caving trip, or have someone close to you who was, the next few days may be difficult,” he said.

First to take the witness stand was Karnin’s mother, Alicia Toki.

She recounted how her son’s outdoor education class was originally supposed to go rock climbing but the plan was changed to caving, ironically because of forecast bad weather.

Karnin, known as “Tino” by friends and family for his enthusiastic embrace of life, had been excited about the prospect of his first caving trip.

However, Karnin grew concerned as rain set in the night before.

“I said, if you get to the caves and you don’t want to go in, don’t go in,” Toki said.

“I also told him, if it’s unsafe, your teachers won’t let you go in. We repeated that to him. We had a lot of trust the teachers would do the right thing.”

Toki emailed the school that night with her concerns.

She was told the trip would start earlier, so the boys would be out of the cave well before the worst rain was expected about 3pm.

The next morning, Karnin’s father, Andre Petera, took him to school.

Petera also urged Karnin not to go into the cave if he did not want to, and followed it up with text messages.

By then Northland was under an orange heavy rain warning.

Petera said the rain turned torrential after he dropped his son off, with some city streets quickly going underwater.

“Kaka Street and the area around there was already starting to flood so I was worried it would also flood in the caves. When Whangārei floods, it floods big time.”

Petera called the school repeatedly to check the caving trip had been called off.

He said his concerns were brushed off, but during his final call about 9.50am he could tell from the receptionist’s tone something was wrong.

When he heard rumours the class was stuck underground, he picked Toki up from work and drove to the caves.

A police cordon was already in place and a major search and rescue operation was underway.

Toki said they were told to head back to the school, where they gathered under shelter with other parents to wait for news.

It was then the principal told them Karnin was missing.

“It didn’t click for me. I was in shock. Andre was rolling on the ground in distress, so was his mum.”

The couple headed back to the caves, ignoring the police cordon.

Petera collapsed a number of times and was taken to hospital.

On the way, he got word his son’s body had been found, and, after being rushed through A&E, was brought back to the cave.

Petera was unable to bring himself to read his statement to the court, so lawyer Ellie Harrison read it for him.

“I came back just before Tino came out of the caves. As soon as Tino was brought up out of the caves, six moreporks starting calling. As soon as he left, they stopped. It was his spirit that was getting released.”

Toki told the court about the changes she hoped the inquest would bring.

She wanted the Ministry of Education to provide health and safety guidelines for schools, instead of leaving it up to every individual Board of Trustees.

She wanted the school to improve health and safety in all aspects of school life, and improve its communication with parents.

Toki also called for Abbey Caves, which local hapū regarded as tapu, to be closed permanently.

“We also want more public awareness and education about climate change. It’s affecting all of us at the moment. And people need to factor in a larger margin of error when they’re planning outdoor activities.”

Accountability was also important, she said.

“We would like to clearly understand what mistakes were made by the school management or organisers, we’d like to understand this for ourselves as Karnin’s grieving whānau, but we would also like clear findings to be made so other schools can learn from those mistakes,” Toki said.

“We trusted our son would be safe at school, and we checked the trip would be safe. We never want any other family to have to be in the same position as us.”

Earlier the court heard about Karnin’s love of all water sports, his natural leadership, his confidence and command of te reo.

Toki said she had asked Karnin’s friends to come up with a poem for his cross.

“It goes like this: How much? Too much! How meke? Tumeke! How legendary? Tino legendary.”

Also giving evidence at the inquest on Thursday was a MetService forensic meteorologist.

He would be followed in coming days by teachers involved in the ill-fated trip, a school Board of Trustees representative, and a Whangārei District Council health and safety manager.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand