In a horror start to the summer beach season, Northland police have scaled down the search for a 16-year-old teenager who was swept into the surf while swimming with family on Ninety Mile Beach.
The boy, from the North Shore, was in the surf with his father and other family members near Hukatere when he struck trouble and failed to resurface about 5pm on Saturday.
He is presumed dead and is the second person to die off Northland's coast in three days after a 25-year-old Auckland man drowned while fishing for crabs at Uretiti beach on Christmas day.
A 28-year-old woman from Wellington was lucky to survive the surf on Boxing Day when bystanders saw her waving for help near Hukatere, not far from the scene of he latest tragedy.
Northland police Search and Rescue co-ordinator Sergeant Neil Pennington considered there was no longer an opportunity for rescue and searchers would be entering a body recovery phase.
Local police and a team of Ahipara surf lifesavers in an inflatable boat were to scour the coastline at low tide about 10am today following extensive shore and air searches since the teenager had gone missing in rough sea conditions.
"It's a waiting game now, there's not much more we can do," Mr Pennington said.
He urged people who were not familiar with the sea to stay out or find beaches that were patrolled by lifeguards.
"If you don't know the beach, stay out or only get in the shallows. Places like Ninety Mile beach are so isolated and being a west coast beach they are always less forgiving than those on the east," Mr Pennington said.
He said there were a number of popular beaches in Northland that were not suitable for people who were not strong swimmers or weren't able to swim. While the surf may not look big, there were rips and under currents that could suck people out beyond their depth.
Mr Pennington was also involved in the rescue of three "ill-prepared" boaties who spent a night on rocks after their boat capsized in rough water.
The trio were plucked from a small island south of Motoroa Island, 4km off the coast of the Karikari Peninsula on Saturday by the Northland Electricity rescue helicopter and Coastguard.
They had no life jackets, very little clothing and were lucky to be alive, Mr Pennington said.
Emergency services were alerted at 2am on Saturday that they were five hours overdue. They had left the Kaimaumau boat ramp in the Rangaunu harbour in a five metre aluminium boat on Friday afternoon.
One man jumped into the water and swam to the Coastguard vessel, but sea conditions made it impossible to recover the other two men and they were eventually winched to safety by the helicopter crew. All three men were given medical treatment.
"It was rough conditions, they had no life jackets and no trip intentions were left with anyone," Mr Pennington said
"It's just stupidity going out ill prepared in rough weather. With all the advertising on television about wearing life jackets this is just ridiculous and endangered other people's lives who had to rescue them."