When I arrived at the beach I knew something was wrong.
Around a dozen people were standing on the dunes near the carpark at Matapouri Beach, a couple had binoculars with them, and all of them were quiet.
I had been at Woolley's Bay on Saturday as Matapouri was too rough for me to swim.
But on my way back to town that afternoon I called in to Matapouri to get one more look at the freak waves. Instead I found myself watching while two men on surfboards ploughed through the surf to reach a tiny head bobbing in the waves beside one of the sea buoys.
A Whangarei police officer had been in the water for about half an hour before two rescuers reached him.