Rahui in place where body located

Fred Tito blessed the area of Uretiti Beach after the body, believed to be of a missing crabber, washed up. Photo / Michael Cunningham

As the tide rolled in and waves crashed on the beach the only other sound that could be heard was Fred Tito as he blessed the area following the discovery of the body believed to be that of a missing crab fisherman.

A 35-year-old man, from Auckland, had been setting crab pots off Uretiti Beach when he fell out of an inflatable boat about 400 metres from the shore on Sunday, November 22. He was wearing a wetsuit but his lifejacket was on the beach.

Despite an intensive land and sea search in the days after his disappearance - including a grid search by a commercial dive team, paid for by the man's family - his body was only found yesterday.

Bream Bay police Sergeant Simon Craig said the body was washed ashore - about 500m south of where he was last seen - by a member of the public who was driving along the beach at about 7am yesterday.

"The family are relieved he's been found and have a funeral planned for Saturday," Mr Craig said.

A few hours after the body was discovered and removed from the beach Te Parawhau kaumatua Fred Tito went to the spot where the man went missing and with permission from a kaumatua from the local hapu Patuharakeke, Mr Tito blessed the area. He also changed the boundaries of the existing rahui.

Mr Tito said he cleared part of the existing rahui and put it in place from the Uretiti Campsite to the Waipu River and about 500m south of that. It would remain in place for seven days.

"Now the whanau have their loved one back it's about letting nature take its course," he said.

While Mr Tito was at the beach he had to approach two men who had cast their fishing lines out to sea and tell them a rahui was in place.

He said the men were co-operative and left straight away.

As Mr Tito commenced the blessing he stood with three others from the Onerahi community. "I also thanked Tangaroa (the sea god) for releasing the body and returning it to the family," he said.