Rock fall: 'We were just mucking around'

A friend of the injured men says they weren't fighting. Photo / Richard Robinson

A man who climbed up Piha's Lion Rock with two of his mates before watching them fall at least 60m says they were "just mucking around" before the plunge.

It is the first time a member of the group has spoken publicly since the incident early last Wednesday morning.

Seven friends had been drinking at one of their houses in the West Auckland suburb of McClaren's Park before driving to Piha in a white Nissan ute.

Three in the party, including the owner of the ute, walked up the 100m rock past warning signs and a barrier warning of erosion danger before two, aged 18 and 31, fell off.

The uninjured man, who did not want to be named, said reports the men got into a fight before falling were untrue.

"There was no foul play. It was nothing like that.

"We do that quite usually, just mucking around, it probably was a bit late, we were probably up there around 11.30[pm] and that was it, [two] of my mates fell off, that was pretty much the whole story.

"We always play rumble and stuff like that ... it was a pure accident, it wasn't very exciting ... they're both okay."

The man said he hoped to see his friends for the first time today.

It is understood they are both conscious but it was not known if they have been able to talk or if they remembered the incident.

The men have been moved from the intensive care unit at Auckland City Hospital to a neurological ward and their condition has been downgraded from critical to stable.

Detective Sergeant Murray Free said police had still not been able to talk to them about why they were climbing the rock in the dark.

Several members of the public had phoned police with sightings of the group driving out to Piha.

However, there were no other witnesses to the fall.

"They've come out from West Auckland so we're just tidying up on timings and things."

Police were not sure why the group had gone to Piha.

"Lots of people like going to Piha, though, it's a pretty popular West Auckland beach.

"I can't really tell you much more until we get a chance to have a decent talk to these guys."

A Piha resident said yesterday she had seen the men "hooning around" in a ute, some sitting in the tray, before the local fire station siren went off.

A member of the group raised the alarm when he knocked on the door of Piha senior lifeguard Jonathon Webber.

Mr Webber said yesterday people were still ignoring the safety barrier and walking to the top of the rock.

He called police on Sunday after spotting about three men doing so.

A local lifeguard, who is also a policeman, climbed the rock to tell them to come down.