A child has drowned in Northland's Kai Iwi Lakes. 

Police say they received a report of a possible drowning shortly after 2:10pm. 

A rescue helicopter was dispatched and a child was located unresponsive. 

"Despite the best efforts of members of the public and then paramedics performing CPR, the child has sadly died" a police spokesman said. 

The death will be referred to the Coroner. 

In a separate incident, a person died in what the Herald understands to be a scuba diving accident at Waiwera Beach. 

A police spokesman said emergency services are in attendance at an incident at Wenderholm Regional Park. 

"At around 1.30pm a person was reported to be unresponsive after getting into difficulty in the water," he said. 

"CPR has been provided at the scene but unfortunately the person has died." 

The death will be referred to the Coroner. 

Waiwera Beach. Photo / file

It brings the total number of people to drown this summer to 24, with another two months to go before the end of the summer reporting period. Water Safety New Zealand says it's been our worst summer so far since 2015. 

Last summer, 25 drownings were recorded across the whole three-month period, which is also the average over the past five summers. 

Twenty people drowned in the month of December 2021, more than double the figure for the previous December, when there were nine. 

Water Safety New Zealand chief executive Daniel Gerrard said the uptick in fatalities was "unprecedented". 

"We have to start making some of these calls ... this is the worst we've had the last six years," he said. 

"We're up [past] 22 and we've still got two months to go ... last year was 25 total so there's absolute alarm bells." 

Gerrard said a common theme in drownings was people underestimating the conditions and overestimating their ability, but wondered if lockdown restrictions last year had accentuated this further. 

The month-long lockdowns for Auckland, Northland and Waikato may have encouraged people to try things they hadn't done before, overestimate their fitness or delay the servicing of equipment. 

"I do think the bulk of us being locked down for such a period of time, maybe our fitness isn't what it had been. 

"In line with that it could also be dive equipment, or your motor in your boat ... and you're out somewhere and potentially your equipment fails."