Emergency services were called to North Piha at 6 pm Saturday 21 January. Lifeguards retrieved two people from just north of Lion Rock but they were unresponsive and unable to be revived.

Both the Police and Westpac Rescue helicopters attended the tragedy as well as lifeguards from Piha and United North Piha surf clubs.

The men have been named as Saurin Nayankumar Patel aged 28, and Anshul Shah aged 31. Patel was an electrical engineer who arrived in New Zealand in August 2022, and Shah arrived in November and was a cashier in a service station. Both men were from Ahmedabad in Gujurat.

The two men were accompanied by a third friend, Apurv Modi who managed to get out of the water. None of the men could swim. Shah’s wife was at North Piha when the tragedy occured.

The men were spotted swimming at a place on North Piha beach called “River Mouth” where the Marawhara Stream disgorges into the sea. The water can appear calm but there are strong rips. United North Piha was just closing its patrol when guards were sent to warn the men against where they were swimming. By the time the patrol reached the location, the men were in trouble. One man was brought in before the Police helicopter spotted the second man from the air, landed and brought him in.

CPR was performed on the beach but neither man could be revived. The men’s families in India have been informed.