{"id":74670,"date":"2025-10-13T00:21:05","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T00:21:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/74670\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T00:21:05","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T00:21:05","slug":"coroner-finds-church-leader-tevita-moeakiola-drowned-after-boat-capsize-off-musick-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/74670\/","title":{"rendered":"Coroner finds church leader T\u0113vita Moeakiola drowned after boat capsize off Musick Point"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Maritime New Zealand<\/a> (MNZ) report stated that hypothermia was likely a contributing factor given sea temperatures at the time were 16.4 C.<\/p>\n

Moeakiola moved to New Zealand from Tonga in 2006. His death left his wife, Paea Vaitohi, and family \u201cheartbroken\u201d and in disbelief, NZME reported at the time.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"T\u0113vitaT\u0113vita Moeakiola drowned during a winter fishing trip in 2022. <\/p>\n

His son, Salesio Moeakiola, described his father as a hard-working man who was always ready with a smile and who was a good dad to his four sons. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe loved fishing and always put God first in everything he did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tributes on social media described him as a selfless individual who always gave up his time for church and k\u0101inga. <\/p>\n

Moeakiola worked as a builder and lived in Manurewa<\/a> with his wife and extended family members.<\/p>\n

He was fit, healthy and active, and was a confident and competent swimmer, according to police witness statements.<\/p>\n

Gone fishing <\/p>\n

About midday on June 18, 2022, Moeakiola, his brother-in-law, Pita Setefano, and a work friend, T\u0113vita Havili, headed off on a pre-planned fishing trip.<\/p>\n

The five to six-metre \u201cfamily boat\u201d they launched from the ramp at Half Moon Bay Marina had a 90-horsepower outboard engine which could be \u201cnotoriously difficult to start\u201d.<\/p>\n

MNZ examined the boat later and found it was in sub-standard condition with rotten wood in some sections, and a large hole near the back of the hull.<\/p>\n

There were signs of attempts at repairing it with aluminium sheeting secured by fibreglass resin matting.<\/p>\n

The forecast that day was for northeast winds rising to 15 knots in the afternoon and evening with choppy seas.<\/p>\n

The trio motored to their normal fishing spot on the western side of Motuihe Island<\/a> where they fished for the afternoon.<\/p>\n

Coroner Schmidt-McCleave said there were always three life jackets on the boat, but a Facebook live post made that day showed none of them wearing one.<\/p>\n

About 6pm, they started to head back to the shore.<\/p>\n

The coroner<\/a> said Moeakiola spoke to his wife at the time and told her he was \u201cwaiting to make sure fisheries officers left the area in case they had any undersize fish\u201d. <\/p>\n

Dark night, rising wind, no life jacket<\/p>\n

It was dark and there was a light wind. Moeakiola was steering the boat and was suddenly met with a stronger breeze and increased swell as they rounded the island.<\/p>\n

Between Brown\u2019s Island and the tip of Musick Point, the engine slowed and the wake breached the back and side of the vessel. <\/p>\n

As they began to bail out, the bow lifted and the boat capsized, throwing all three men into the water.<\/p>\n

MNZ considered the hole in the hull likely caused the vessel to founder and capsize in the manner described by the survivors.<\/p>\n

Setefano used a life jacket that had been in the boat to stay afloat, and Havili took hold of a petrol can. <\/p>\n

Havili later told police that Moeakiola was not wearing a life jacket, and still had his shoes on and needed to take them off because they were heavy.<\/p>\n

They began swimming towards Musick Point, but Moeakiola turned and started swimming back to the boat. <\/p>\n

He rejoined the others when they encouraged him to stay with them and all three continued to shore, initially calling to each other as they swam. <\/p>\n

Havili heard Setefano calling back to him but Moeakiola only replied once and seemed to be drifting further away.<\/p>\n

Boat found next day<\/p>\n

About 30-40 minutes later, Setefano and Havili reached the shore but Moeakiola did not. <\/p>\n

After shouting for several minutes but hearing nothing, they walked to the nearest house and called emergency services<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The boat was found early the next morning, washed up and overturned on Musick Point at the mouth of the T\u0101maki River.<\/p>\n

Moeakiola\u2019s body was found nearby later that day.<\/p>\n

Coroner Schmidt-McCleave said it was likely that he succumbed to the cold water temperatures closer to the time he went missing than to when he was found. <\/p>\n

She said in her recommendations that an often-repeated, and often ignored message, was that lifejackets were imperative to survival in the water. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very possible that, had Mr Moeakiola been wearing a lifejacket, he may have been able to reach the shore with the other survivors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Water Safety New Zealand spokesman Rob Hewitt, who survived 75 hours adrift at sea himself, said wearing a lifejacket was the simplest and most effective way to reduce drowning fatalities in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

\u201cToo many of our men \u2013 often experienced, capable, confident \u2013 are still heading out not wearing lifejackets. We are not invincible,” Hewitt said.<\/p>\n

Coroner Schmidt-McCleave said if a trip report had been made with Coastguard it was possible it would have raised the alarm earlier, if overdue reports were notified to them.<\/p>\n

The coroner endorsed MNZ\u2019s recommendation that two forms of communication be carried when heading out boating, such as a mobile phone and a waterproof hand-held marine radio.<\/p>\n

Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ\u2019s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) report stated that hypothermia was likely a contributing factor given sea temperatures at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[74,58463,5532,58458,58461,58462,12897,4509,12629,51029,11424,3087,42,13489,1362,58460,58457,58459,43,6662,2847,423,23432,165,1529,40,38,41,39,12628,1315,19054,58456,1316],"class_list":["post-74670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-after","tag-ashore","tag-boat","tag-capsize","tag-capsized","tag-choppy","tag-church","tag-cold","tag-coroner","tag-drowned","tag-finds","tag-fishing","tag-headlines","tag-leader","tag-made","tag-midwinter","tag-moeakiola","tag-musick","tag-news","tag-off","tag-only","tag-point","tag-seas","tag-their","tag-three","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-tragedy","tag-trip","tag-turned","tag-tvita","tag-when"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}