A young man believed to have drowned while swimming at Piha was due to be married next month, his family says. 

Abhishek Arora, 25, was swimming at the West Auckland beach about 4pm on Tuesday when he and six others were caught in a rip. 

Police confirmed this morning a body had been found washed up on Bethells Beach, north of Piha, just after 8pm last night. Formal identification was continuing but police believed it was the missing swimmer, a spokeswoman said. 

Six people were rescued by surf lifesavers in the incident, but the Auckland hotel supervisor initially couldn’t be found. 

Yesterday, police told his India-based family they believed a body found at another beach was the missing man, his cousin Vijay Tomar told the Herald this morning. 

“[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.” 

Arora, who moved to Auckland from the town of Ambala - 200km north of New Delhi - eight years ago didn’t have any family in New Zealand, but was engaged to be married next month, Tomar said. 

His fiance is from Sri Lanka, but Tomar didn’t know what support she had in New Zealand. 

An Ambala man now living in Auckland told the burden he was helping Arora’s grieving family with the logistical challenges they faced, after a mutual friend asked for his assistance. 

He spoke with them this morning and they confirmed Arora was to marry next month, Arjun Bhardwaj said. 

Now Arora’s younger brother was preparing to come to New Zealand to identify his body, and begin the sad task of returning him home. 

“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 was hoping to set up a Givealittle page to ease the financial burden on the family, Bhardwaj said. 

“This is a heartbreaking situation.” 

Arora and the six others swept out to sea by a rip were in the water between the flags, a Surf Life Saving New Zealand spokesperson said on Wednesday. 

“The swimmers were in the flagged area which meant surf lifeguards were watching and were able to rescue six out of the seven swimmers.” 

They understood Arora didn’t know how to swim, the spokesperson said. 

Conditions at the time of the tragedy were rough, with a choppy 2.5m swell, gusting wind and low tide. 

Four of the seven were saved by lifeguards with a rescue board, and another two were rescued with an IRB, but Arora couldn’t be found. 

Cherie Howie is an Auckland-based reporter who joined the Herald in 2011. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years and specialises in general news and features.