Traveling to capture one of the world's most beautiful coastlines at sunrise, the team, including a photographer and a writer from This NZ Life, discovered the devastating sight of over 400 beached pilot whales.

New Zealand's Department of Conservation had spotted the large pod moving towards the coast overnight, but by the time anyone arrived on site Friday morning over 300 of the whales were already dead. The community sprung into action and over 500 volunteers turned out to assist with the rescue effort, but the drama wasn't over.

On Saturday afternoon a second pod of over 200 pilot whales hit the shore, turning this into the second largest mass stranding of whales in New Zealand's history.