Police have confirmed a visitor to the Ōpōtiki District died in the New Year’s Day incident. He was seen struggling and brought to shore, but could not be revived by rescuers or emergency services.
His death has been referred to the coroner. It was the first water-related fatality of 2025.
Mate Webb, a spiritual adviser for his hapū when needed and a lay minister in the Catholic faith, said local people assisted at the scene of the drowning.
Webb lived in Auckland but was in Ōmaio, where he grew up, for the holidays.
He said a rāhui he placed on the area following the death would lift on Saturday.
He understood the man who died was from Bennydale, in Waitomo District, and was visiting the beach with family when his fishing kontiki became tangled in a rock.
“They got tangled up there so this man decides to swim out and untangle it and then he got into trouble.”
He said locals saw the man struggling in the water and swam out to help him.
“A couple of our young people saw that this man was obviously in distress.
“They tried to bring him back and then get him on to the beach and resuscitate him but unfortunately he passed away there,” Webb said.
Ōmaio is in Ōpōtiki District in eastern Bay of Plenty.
He said the man’s whānau had messaged the iwi to say thank you.
“They wanted to acknowledge our people for their assistance, the process is one the hapū call kaitiaki [guardian], which is to actually comfort visitors to our area and to ensure that they were looked after while they were here,” Webb said.
“The local people came together with food and all that to feed our visitors.
“They cared for that body until [the family] had eaten and the police arrived.
“Later that afternoon I was asked to go down and do a tuku, to release the person from the physical world into the spiritual world.
“Then at the same time, place that rāhui and restriction from the day that he passed to the fourth [of January], as a matter of respect and a matter of tikanga,” Webb said.
“Nobody is allowed to dive or collect any seafood from within that area until those restrictions have been uplifted.”
He said holidaymakers at Ōmaio who were not aware of the rāhui had been very respectful when informed by locals.
“Some people have turned up and headed on down [to go] fishing, not knowing that there are restrictions in place.”
He said some asked why there were no signs, but the local community were used to everyone already knowing.
“I guess we’re so used to that process that we forget that we’ve actually got holidaymakers coming through all the time.
“And they’ve been really respectful. They really have,” Webb said.
He said the hapū boundary for the rāhui was an area of about 800 to 1000 metres from where the man was pulled ashore and extended to the Haparapara River.
Webb said he would lift the restriction by way of ritual early tomorrow.
Webb said he wanted to pay his respects to local spiritual leaders who were away from the area at the time the man died.
Aleyna Martinez is a multimedia journalist based in the Bay of Plenty. She moved to the region in 2024 and has previously reported in Wairarapa and at Pacific Media Network.
