The body of a man who was swept out to sea in southern Wairarapa yesterday has been recovered.
An extensive air and sea search failed to find the fisherman yesterday and was called off at about 7pm, but a body was found at about 11pm near the river mouth.
Photo: Google Maps
Police are now in the process of notifying the man's next of kin.
Emergency services were called about 2.30pm yesterday when it was reported the man had been swept out to sea from Lake Onoke, near the settlement of Lake Ferry.
Police said the man got into trouble while trying to cross the mouth of the Ruamahanga River.
A local kaitiaki, Reuben Tipoki, who manages the Lake Ferry Holiday Park, said the man had been fishing with some of his family.
He went to the beach after a resident called over his fence to tell him what happened, and described conditions there as rough.
"The people standing on the beach, there were a couple of times we stood in a line to give the helicopters an idea of where we thought the person was, because the lake had been quite high, there were lots of logs being swept out, so it made it quite hard for people to see."
He said he understood the man was not from the area.