Jessica White and her partner, Josh, were itching for a vacation.
Jessica longed for the smell of the ocean and the warm sand between her toes. After some research, they found Murphy’s Holiday Camp in Matata, New Zealand, and decided it was the perfect spot for a family getaway. They had no idea their vacation was about to turn into a living nightmare.
Upon arriving at the beautiful campsite, they set up their tent close to the breathtaking shoreline. Once everything was in place, they began enjoying their much-needed holiday with their 18-month-old son, Malachi.
Josh cast out his fishing line while Jessica relaxed on the beach. Malachi sat between them, gazing far out to sea. It was a precious moment, but little did they know, it was about to become anything but.
Malachi dug trenches in the sand with his tiny fingers, giggling with delight. He loved the beach. When it was time to return to their campsite, Jessica scooped him up and covered him with kisses on his salty cheeks. But nothing could stop Malachi from roaring in protest. He kicked his little heels and wailed until he collapsed, exhausted, in his mother’s arms.
Jessica assumed he was just tired from the day’s adventures, so she decided to put him to bed. She had no idea that her son had other plans.
With Malachi tucked into bed, Josh lit a campfire. He and Jessica sat together, talking about their hopes and dreams late into the night.
Jessica looked at her sleeping son’s face.
“My world of love. My firstborn son. The beginning of life,” she whispered, her heart swelling with love.
Later, Jessica and Josh retired to their tent and slept soundly through the night, unaware that Malachi had woken up in the early hours of the morning.
Silently, the toddler unzipped the tent and took off as fast as his little legs could carry him—straight to his favorite place in the world.
That morning, Gus Hutt was out fishing in the Bay of Plenty. Little did he know, the bay was about to yield something far more precious than fish.
By sheer chance, Hutt walked 100 meters to the left of the campsite instead of heading directly to his usual fishing spot. That’s when he saw something floating in the waves.
Hutt noticed a pale object bobbing up and down far out in the water. Intrigued, he motored his little boat closer.
At first, he thought it was a porcelain doll—perhaps something that had washed ashore from the beach. The object had dark hair and pale skin, so Hutt stretched out his arm and pulled it into his boat.
He admired the craftsmanship, thinking his wife would be thrilled to see it.
Then, the “doll” let out a tiny squeak.
Hutt’s eyes widened in shock as he fell to his knees.
“His face looked just like porcelain, with his short hair slicked down by the water,” Hutt later explained. “But then he let out a little squeak, and I thought, ‘Oh Lord, this is a baby—and it’s alive!’”
Hutt rushed back to shore, praying he had pulled the child from the water in time.
When he arrived at the campsite, the little boy was cold and soaking wet, but miraculously, he was alive.
Hutt couldn’t believe what had just happened. As the shock wore off, he immediately began searching for the boy’s parents.
There was only one couple at the campsite with a small child, and Hutt’s wife quickly located them. She ran to the tent, shaking it violently.
“Where’s your baby?!” she shouted. “We just pulled one from the sea!”
Jessica awoke in confusion. When she realized what had happened, she let out a piercing scream.
Hutt later explained how Malachi had been floating at a steady pace in a rip current.
“If I hadn’t been there, or if it had been a minute later, I would have missed him,” Hutt said. “He was bloody lucky. It just wasn’t his time to go.”
Shortly afterward, emergency services and the Matata Volunteer Fire Brigade arrived at the scene.
Jessica was overwhelmed.
“I don’t think my heart beat from the moment I heard the news to the moment I saw him,” she said. “I don’t think my heart worked at all.”
Malachi was rushed to the hospital, where doctors confirmed it was a miracle he survived.
Everything had aligned perfectly—Gus Hutt had just happened to walk in a different direction that day, putting him in the exact spot to rescue Malachi in time.
Later, Hutt retraced Malachi’s tiny footprints in the sand, following them from the tent straight into the water.
“I was about 15 meters away from my fishing rod,” Hutt said. “He wasn’t in the water long. I must have just missed seeing him go in.”
Later, Jessica and Josh visited Hutt at his home to thank him once again.
“Malachi was wriggling, trying to get down to look at everything,” Hutt recalled. “He was just a lovely, cheeky little fella.”
Thankfully, Malachi suffered no lasting effects from his terrifying experience.
When the story spread online, many people called it a miracle.
One commenter wrote, “Gus was exactly where God wanted him to be.”
Another added, “His guardian angel was on duty for sure.”
However, not all the comments were positive. Some people blamed Jessica and Josh, saying they should have kept a closer watch on their son.
Some asked how Malachi managed to unzip the tent and wander off without his parents noticing.
Jessica had one thing to say in response:
“Zip your tents up—zip them up nice and high if you’ve got a child that can reach. Use a padlock if necessary.”
She continued, “People can judge us all they want. They can think we’re bad parents. But thanks to a chance encounter, Malachi is alive and well.”
Indeed, if Gus Hutt had chosen a different path that morning, or if he hadn’t noticed what he thought was a porcelain doll floating in the water, Malachi’s fate would have been very different.
Thankfully, fate brought the fisherman and the baby together just in time.
