Crowds of onlookers gathered at Mahia Beach to witness the final journey of a 16m-long sperm whale, which washed up on Friday night and died from natural causes about 8am on Saturday.
Early this morning work began to move the whale's body - which was about 50m offshore - on to the beach for burial.
Department of Conservation biodiversity ranger Jamie Quirk said work began about 6.30am, with several diggers working in unison to roll the whale up the beach.
Mr Quirk said it was quite difficult to move the carcass, which weighed about 40 tonnes and took more than four hours to shift halfway up the popular beach.
The whale was a male about 16.1m long. It's teeth were "very worn" and it was quite skinny, Mr Quirk said.