A whale that stranded near a central Auckland suburb this morning is back in Waitemata Harbour and hopefully heading for open water.
The Antarctic minke whale came ashore near Pt Chevalier beach, where volunteers arrived to find the mammal about as far away from home as it could possibly be.
Workers on the Northwestern Motorway spotted the creature stranded around 7am and locals arrived soon afterwards, fearing they may already be too late.
Volunteer Brent Goldenham said at first he wasn't sure if it was alive.
"[I] ran over with a couple of buckets and some towels and was just hoping, and then got out closer and it was still alive, so I was pretty shocked."
Twelve-year-old Zairab Aziz's father called her on the way to school, and she and her mum decided to lend a hand.
"We saw the whale and we went to it and we just waited for help and buckets and stuff," she says.
Project Jonah was cautiously optimistic the whale would make it back into the water with the rising tide.
"The whale appears to be in good health but we don't know what may have happened internally, whether any injuries may have happened as a result of laying on the beach for so long," says spokesman Darren Glover.
"But with the tide coming in that pressure will raise and hopefully the whale is still in good enough health that it will start swimming again."
DOC and marine scientists watched on as the whale refloated itself around 2pm.
The whale has been in the water for several hours and has made it about 3km down the Waitemata Harbour to Little Shoal Bay.
Rescue workers hope the whale will continue to head out into deeper waters.
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