Had the southern royal albatross - scientific name Diomedea epomophora - survived it would have been taken back to its landing place to be released.
It was taken into the centre by fisheries officers who found it sitting in the sand, exhausted and covered in sand.
Albatrosses are very buoyant and can live for years on the ocean without making landfall, but encounter problems and lose buoyancy when their feet touch the sand below the water.
Mr Webb thought the albatross was a young male. Its wingspan was 2.3 metres, whereas an adult southern royal can be over 3m, and it was fairly docile (a male trait).
It was probably headed toward the sub-Antarctic when it encountered turbulence. There had been reports of two or three dead albatrosses found on Ripiro Beach, Mr Webb said.
The carcass is being stored in a Department of Conservation freezer while Mr Webb investigates having it mounted by a specialist bird taxidermist and then displayed at the centre.
In March 2003, a wandering albatross, given the name Albert Ross, stayed a couple of weeks at the centre after having crash-landed at Ruakaka Beach during a storm. An albatross blew in and was cared for at the centre in the summer of 2004, and another brought in after landing on Ripiro Beach, near Glinks Gully, on Christmas Eve 2005.