Partygoers fatal fall 'tragic' - police

The death of a young father in Northland on Saturday was an absolute tragedy, police say.

Michael Joseph Rozijn, 29, from Auckland, died instantly when he fell about 60 metres from a tree branch onto rocks below a cliff at Tapeka Pt, just north of Russell in the Bay of Islands.

Mr Rozijn and friends had left a party for a walk and when they came to a tree with a horizontal branch on a cliff top.

He had walked along the branch, Senior Sergeant Peter Robinson of Kerikeri police said.

When he was returning along the branch he fell, in front of his horrified friends.

Police were called immediately but he was dead when he was found about two hours later.

It was not known if alcohol was a factor in Mr Rozijn's decision to walk out on the tree branch, Mr Robinson said.

"It's tragic. He has a wife and a young child. It is one of those things you could look back on and say 'why should that have happened?'," he said.

The matter would be referred to the coroner, he said.

- NZPA