Jess's mother and family at the beach ceremony

Friends and family gathered at Piha beach on Saturday to farewell Jess Hosking, loved young member of the Piha Surf Life Saving Club. The mourners descended to the beach through a guard of honour of lifeguards with raised surf boat oars, carrying daffodils and other flowers.

A mass of IRBs, canoes, board riders and the two surf boats took the flowers out the back where they formed a glowing yellow carpet on the sea. The surf boats raised their oars and a lifeguard swam through. The surfboats made a perfect run back to the shore where 19 white doves were released – one for each of Jess’s years. They wheeled several times over the beach and Lion Rock before heading into the Waitakeres. There were eulogies at the clubhouse where family and friends remembered Jess’s short life.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/jess20hosking/search/results.cfm?kw1=jess%20hosking&kw2=&st=gsa