Praise has been heaped on those who came together to spend the last weekend of 2017 helping bury a 16m-long whale which washed up on a northern Hawke's Bay beach.
Crowds of onlookers gathered at Mahia Beach on the last day of 2017 to witness the final journey of the sperm whale, which washed up on Friday night, and died from natural causes about 8am on Saturday.
Early Sunday morning work began to move the whale's body - which was about 50m offshore - on to the beach for burial. From 6.30am several diggers were used to roll the whale up the beach. After being moved to the high tide mark in the afternoon, local iwi removed its jaw bone and teeth.
Finally on Sunday evening, the whale was buried in an 8m-deep grave in the sand dunes, Department of Conservation biodiversity ranger Jamie Quirk said.
For many of the DoC staff and local iwi, this marked the end of a long weekend - some worked up to 14 hours on Sunday, following a day of 12 hours on Saturday.