Before long, people arrived at the scene to take care of the whales.

According to Project Jonah volunteer Adrian Winks: "When we arrived, a huge crowd had already formed – at least 400 to 500 people working together to keep the whales wet and calm. There were several families and tourists who had been picnicking in the bay and decided to help; local campers were also out in force."

Project Jonah medic Heidi Baker added, "It was really calm, people had already covered the whales and dug around their fins. Everyone had gathered in groups around a whale and the kids were bringing in water."

The rescue effort continued till around 1pm, when the tide finally came in. Two trenches that had been dug to bring the water closer to the whales helped to ease them back to deeper water, a few at a time.

During the process, one of the whales gave birth to a calf while she was moving back to the sea. "As they were slowly moving, the pod stopped and the adults came back around. The calf was born, they checked it was OK, then they moved off again," said Andrew Bauche, DOC interim area manager for Hauraki Gulf.

Once in deeper waters, the whales took some time to readjust, so a human chain was formed to prevent them from returning to the beach. Boats guided them out to sea.

Said Mark Simmonds, International Director of Science at Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, "Pilot whales are amongst those species known to often mass strand and it seems that their navigational abilities can be confused by shallow gently sloping conditions, such as those found in this area."

He added, "Once some whales get into difficulties, the tight group cohesion of the group means others may move to try to help them and themselves become stranded. Without very swift and expert human help in these circumstances the whales will die. It is also possible that one member of the whale pod was ill or wounded and the others ended up on shore as they were trying to help it."

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