A number of police and forensic staff are at Mission Bay beach after a body was found there early this morning.
The scene has been blocked from public sight with blue tarpaulin, and the area cordoned off with white police tape.
It is believed the body washed up on the beach, but that had yet to be officially confirmed.
One local woman said she saw the body lying on the beach as she walked her dog at 6.30am.
"It was surreal, but sad," she said as the backdrop to the scene was so beautiful.
"It looked like someone sleeping on the beach. And then I realised."
Police were with the body at that stage, she said, but it had not yet been covered up. A park warden was also there, and she believed he may have been the person to discover the body.
Auckland City Police confirmed it was the body of a man and believed it had washed up.
They are making inquiries to identify the man and to locate next of kin.
An undertaker has arrived to remove the body from the beach.
Pulling up in a black van, a stretcher was brought down to the sand.
Police and forensic officers held up a white sheet of tarpaulin to block their movements from the public and media, as they lifted the body onto the stretcher.
They then carried the stretcher, with the body in a black body bag, back up to the esplanade, and into the back of the waiting van.
The autopsy was being carried out this afternoon, police spokesperson Noreen Hegarty said.
While the body had not been formally identified, she said police had an idea of the identity of the deceased.
"We do believe that we know who this person was, but we are still going through the process of trying to do a formal identification," she said.
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