Lord of Rings sound editor in raft tragedy

Police senior sergeant Carolyn Watson said Hopkins, 53, a New Zealander, drowned on Sunday after his raft capsized in a river on the North Island.

A river contractor, Bruce Slater, and his son used a jet boat to rescue Hopkins’s wife Nicci, who had been in the Waiohine River for two hours and was clinging to a ledge in a narrow part of the gorge too dangerous for bigger boats or a helicopter.

Mr Slater said the flash flood raised the river two to three metres (9.8ft) while the rafters were in the water. “If they’d been half an hour earlier, they would have been clear of the gorge,” he said.

Half an hour later, the water levels would have been noticeably dangerous before the rafters launched, Mr Slater added.

The New Zealand Herald newspaper quoted Rings director Peter Jackson as saying many actors, directors and film crew who were lucky enough to work with Hopkins would miss him deeply.