A 25-year-old man who drowned while swimming at Piha Beach was due to marry next month, his family has confirmed, The New Zealand Herald reported.
Abhishek Arora, a hotel supervisor, was swimming with six others at the West Auckland beach around 4pm on Tuesday when the group was caught in a rip. Surf Life Saving New Zealand (SLSNZ) reported that six of the swimmers were rescued, but Arora initially could not be located.
Late last night, police confirmed that a body had been found washed up on Bethells Beach, just north of Piha. Although formal identification was still pending, authorities believe it to be the missing swimmer, a police spokeswoman said this morning.
His cousin, Vijay Tomar, spoke to the Herald and said the family had received the devastating news from police. “It’s tragic. [Family] were called by police yesterday, [saying] that they’d found the body. We’re planning to bring him [home] to India,” Tomar shared.
Arora, who moved to Auckland from Ambala, India, eight years ago, had no immediate family in New Zealand. He was engaged to marry his fiancée, who is from Sri Lanka, next month, though Tomar was unsure of the support she had in New Zealand.
Arjun Bhardwaj, an Ambala native now living in Auckland, spoke about assisting Arora’s grieving family with the logistical challenges they now face. Bhardwaj confirmed that Arora had been planning to marry next month, and added, “His family is devastated and desperately trying to arrange travel to New Zealand to see their son one last time and handle his cremation. They are facing significant financial hardship in doing so," he told Herald.
Bhardwaj has set up a Givealittle page to help ease the financial burden on the family.
The incident occurred in rough conditions, with a choppy 2.5m swell, gusting winds, and low tide. According to SLSNZ, the swimmers were in the flagged area, meaning lifeguards were watching.
“The swimmers were in the flagged area which meant surf lifeguards were watching and were able to rescue six out of the seven swimmers,” a spokesperson for SLSNZ explained. It was also understood that Arora did not know how to swim.
Four of the swimmers were rescued using a rescue board, and two others were brought to safety with an IRB, but Arora was not found at the time. Hours later, his body was discovered at Bethells Beach, marking a tragic end to the search.
His family is now making arrangements to bring his body back to India for final rites.