Family gather at Muriwai Beach after former refugee couple swept away leave nine children

Three siblings desperately tried to save their drowning parents after they were swept off the rocks while fishing at Muriwai Beach yesterday.

Kay Dah Ukay, 48, drowned after he fell into the sea and was washed several hundred metres down the coast to Māori Bay.

Mu Thu Pa, 50, grabbed a fishing rod and reached out to her husband, before she too was swept away into the raging sea.

Three of their youngest siblings watched in horror and tried to do all the could as their parents struggled in the turbulent waters.

"When Dad fell in I was sitting with Mum and my brother, then she tried to help him but slipped and fell in," Tha Dah Paw Ukay, 13, said.

"I grabbed a rod and tried to help Mum grab it."

The couple's nine children gathered today at Muriwai Beach to bless the site where tragedy struck.

As the sun rose over the west Auckland beach, about 40 people joined them, including wider family, members of the Auckland Burmese community, tangata whenua, Muriwai lifeguards, police and community members, for karakia and to bless the couple.

Eldest daughter Dah Htoo Ukay, 25, said their parents loved fishing at Muriwai Beach.

"They loved fishing, they would always go. They always liked to go out and do things, never stay at home.

"They also went to Whatipu and Piha, but Muriwai was their favourite. Now it is a very sad place for us."

The blessings took place near the rocks the couple had been fishing from, before a raging ocean and with a blustery, cold onshore breeze blowing.

The nine siblings were all feeling very sad today, Dah Htoo Ukay said.

"We have no one to call mother, no one to call father.

"We are a lot of siblings, and I have younger brothers and a sister to look after now."

Tears flowed at the dawn ceremony.

The Auckland Burma community had been supporting them since the tragedy.

"Once they heard the news people have been coming around to our house to help and support us, with the funeral and everything."

Her father slipped on the wet rocks as he tried to haul in a fish, she said.

"When they went fishing they got a big fish and tried to take it out," she said.

"He was slipping on the rock and fell in the water.

Jay, 9, said an old man standing behind them called 111.

Family of the drowning victims Kay Dah Ukay, 48, and his wife Mu Thu Pa, 50, gather at Muriwai beach. Photo / Brett Phibbs

The alarm was raised about 2pm.

Jay said an ambulance and a helicopter arrived quickly. Police found their mother's body first.

"They said she was still breathing a little bit but after half an hour she was gone. But my father, he was already passed away," he said.

Happy times: Kay Dah Ukay and his wife Mu Thu Pa (far left) with their nine children and one grandchild. Photo / Supplied

Dah Htoo Ukay said it took police about 40 minutes to find her father's body.

Muriwai Volunteer Lifeguard Service chairman Tim Jago said lifeguards had the mother in a rescue tube and pulled her ashore, where some members of the public assisted with CPR.

"We were happy for the help as we still had a second person in the water."

The father's body had been swept several hundred metres around the rocks into the middle of Māori Bay, and was located by the Eagle Helicopter.

Lifeguards recovered his body in an RIB, but at that stage he was deceased.

"Sadly it was two fatalities and not two rescues," Jago said.

"It was a case of wrong spot, wrong conditions and wrong clothes.

"If they had the ability to swim, if they had been able to get 10m to the left, 10 strokes, there were steps cut into the rocks and they could have got up those.

"Or if they had got 10m to the right, there was a ledge they could have gone up.

"But they had no swimming ability and their clothing was just completely wrong for the conditions, and that kept them where they were."

Jago said there had been "too many deaths to count" off the rocks there.

"In the past 30 years or so here must have been about 20 people die there.

Jago said they would look into how to better communicate safety messages, including in the Burmese language.

"We are always looking at ways to better get the message across about the dangers of fishing there."

Dah Htoo Ukay said 20 years ago her parents and the older children had to flee from the Burmese army to reach safety in Thailand.

They lived in a refugee camp on the Thai/Burmese border for 10 years before being resettled in New Zealand in January 2008.

Both parents were still learning English with Waitakere Adult Literacy, but the older children are now working. Dah Htoo Ukay works in the Tegel chicken factory and two of her brothers work at a warehouse.

• Donations for the family can be made to ASB Bank account 12 3232 0382611 00 in the name of Dah Htoo Ukay.