Sixteen people stranded on a bird life sanctuary island in Auckland's Hauraki Gulf are being ferried off by water taxi.
A spokeswoman for Kawau Cruises said a craft was planning to take two trips to Tiritiri Matangi Island on Friday morning to shuttle the group, including children, who were forced to spend an unexpected extra night on the island.
The gulf remained too rough for the ferry service to reach the island, with sailings to Tiritiri Matangi cancelled.
But the group, desperate to get off the island, were now resorting to the smaller water taxi to get back to Auckland.
The 15 visitors were dropped off at the island on Wednesday. They and one Department of Conservation staffer had been stranded there since then.
The Kawau Cruises spokeswoman said it would take two journeys to get everyone off the island.
The first trip got under way at 9am and a second would take place an hour later.
On Thursday, wind gusts of up to 81 km/h were recorded at the Tiritiri Matangi lighthouse.
All visitors stayed at the Department of Conservation bunkhouse.
