His family, parents Rick and Biddy and sister Lucy, said on Thursday they will remember him as a kind, generous and strong-spirited man that they could always count on.
"He was annoying as, but I could always count on him", 19-year-old Lucy said.
He went missing between 6.30pm and 7.30pm on Monday.
Family friend Haana Wilcox said 'Hughie', as he was known, was out walking in the rain the night before his body was found.
"He made an amazing 20km walk from his family home at Te Paerahi crossing the Taurekaitai River and ending at Parimahu lighthouse," she said.
"He left home on Monday night and walked along the beach to the river mouth, crossed the river, then walked all the way to the lighthouse at Parimahu.
"We've estimated that distance to be about 20km. That's pretty amazing really. Walking the 20km is not easy on a normal day."
Tully was schooled at Mangaorapa and Lindisfarne and he was regularly seen on the Pōrangahau Golf Course, Wilcox said.
He had been fighting a genetic condition called PKAN 2, a "crippling degenerative disease". In 2018 it was discovered he had an iron overload in his brain, she said.
Wilcox says Tully's farewell at the Pōrangahau Country Club on April 8, is showing signs of being just the sort of send off he would have loved.
"Haere atu e tama ki a Ranginui, tiaho mai ai e," she said.
