Four people, including a minister, who spent a night adrift in stormy Northland seas clinging to a plastic bin put their faith in God and prayed the current would wash them to landfall.
They left from Henderson heading for Tapora by car on Friday to get flounder and piper unaware of
the storm warning.
Three members of the Iosefa family from Henderson and a friend Siosifa Tupou had been fishing for flounder and piper at Tapora, south of Wellsford, when around 11pm rain, wind and darkness caused them to become disoriented and unable to find shallow water.
Eventually they were washed out to sea and, with no land lights to guide them, they were at the mercy of the Kaipara Harbour. As they were being swept out, they grabbed on to a white plastic bin they had and clung on for dear life as the storm raged.
Eight hours later, cold and exhausted they struggled ashore 8km north of Pouto Lighthouse about 7am on Saturday.
The Reverend Suamalie Iosefa, a minister of the Congregation of Christian Church, said God had given him the resource for their survival - the plastic bin - and he told his son and daughter-in-law Elisaia and Easter, both in their 20s, and Mr Tupou, in his 40s, not to be scared.
"Our life depends on the bin. Throw everything out except the torch and hold on to each corner and let the current take us back to shore," he told the other three.
"I told them to throw the fish far into the channel so as not to attract shark and kept the torch to signal if the chance arose."
Mr Iosefa said they kept calm and, when the sea filled the bin, they emptied it out.
Born in Tuvalu he said the family, which has lived in New Zealand for 10 years, were familiar with the sea and were good swimmers. Their culture considered the sea their friend and the land their mother and they had faith they would survive.
"We kept our confidence up with prayers and when we got too cold we kicked hard for a short time to warm up."
He said just before dawn they some lights off the point and at one stage thought about kicking for shore, but the current was too strong so they waited until they were pushed around past the point where there was less wind.
On reaching shore, the four made the right choice to head south to look for help. The two older men eventually pushed ahead from the others to hail local farmer Christine McGillivray for help.
Mrs McGillivray said she saw two exhausted looking men coming up off the beach waving with their hands above their heads.
"We are used to having pull stranded vehicles off the beach but, when they said no vehicle and had come from Tapora I asked them where their boat was. I couldn't believe it when they explained what had happened," she said.
Husband Andrew took a four-wheel-drive to pick up the others and took them to the farmhouse for a much needed cup of tea and rest.
Mr Iosefa then phoned his wife but, without giving too much detail, asked to be picked up in Dargaville.
"We were blessed to be spared," he said. "I had confidence God would take us to shore, he said "Today's (Sunday's) sermon will be about temptation and faith."
He thanked the McGillivray family for their help and hospitality saying the Pouto community reminded him of his village in his homeland. Seemingly unfazed by the whole ordeal yesterday he intended to continue as planned an interview with Maori Television on climate change.