The Department of Conservation believes a pod of whales which has twice stranded on Stewart Island in the last couple of days is now safely well out to sea.
More than 40 DoC staff and volunteers have put in long hours trying to get the whales back out to sea.
Twenty two have died but 90 were saved.
DoC officer Tom O'Connor, on Stewart Island, says a plane was put up at first light this morning to search for signs of the whales.
He says the aircraft has checked a wide area of Foveaux Strait and there has been no sign of the whales.
- IRN
Surviving whales stay away
DoC believes whales safely out to sea
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