KEY POINTS:
A 5-year-old girl had cried to go on the floundering trip that ultimately claimed her life and that of her grandmother in the early hours of Saturday.
Family and friends of Maeva Precious Mataora, 5, and Tangatavai Tania Mataora, 43, gathered at the family home in Mangere yesterday as police continued their investigation into how their fishing trip ended so tragically.
The grieving family - who spilled out of the house and gathered under a gazebo on the front lawn - asked for privacy.
They said the two would be farewelled together in a joint ceremony on Friday after family members from the Cook Islands arrived.
The pair had gone floundering on mudflats on the southern shores of Manukau Harbour with Mrs Mataora's husband, Grand, and 8-year-old Grand jnr late on Friday night.
Police said Mrs Mataora and the two children separated from Mr Mataora when they headed back to shore.
But with no torch in the pitch-black night, the trio got into serious trouble.
Mr Mataora heard the children's screams and frantically searched. However, equipped with only a small torch himself, he was helpless to find them.
He raised the alarm after running to a home in Seagrove Rd, Clarks Beach, several kilometres away.
The bodies of Mrs Mataora and little Maeva were found by search and rescue crews about 9am.
Grand jnr was swept more than a kilometre down a channel in the Manukau Harbour before spending hours in the dark clinging to his dead mother, who he assumed was sleeping peacefully.
A family spokeswoman said the little girl - who enjoyed the outdoors and liked to ride her bike - had been floundering before and loved it.
Maeva and Grand jnr had "cried to go" on the trip on Friday night, she said.
The Mataoras had been floundering at the same spot on the harbour shores several times.
Sergeant Adam Pyne of Pukekohe police said the lead-up to the tragedy was still being pieced together.
Mr Pyne said it was too soon to speculate if police would consider laying charges.
He said that while the main consideration was to talk with the family to try to determine what went wrong, Grand jnr was still too traumatised to be interviewed.
Sergeant Dene Duthie of police search and rescue repeated calls for people to prepare adequately before heading into the outdoors.
"It's a tragedy that preparation may have prevented."
He said if the family had been wearing lifejackets, been equipped with torches and been able to swim they would not have come to grief.
