Boaties find body off Takapuna beach

Police are trying to unravel the death of a man discovered by yachties off Takapuna beach.

The 20-year-old, who had recently arrived from India and secured work in Milford, was found 800m from the beach on Wednesday night.

It is not known how the man came to be in the water - whether he had gone swimming, or had been walking and fallen in - but police believed he had not been there long.

Officers are now trying to track down the man's family in India so he can be formally identified.

"There's nothing to indicate that [the death] is suspicious at all, but it's a mystery that we're going to have to solve," North Shore Inspector Les Paterson said.

"But just how he came to be 800m off Takapuna beach we don't know ... we don't have any sightings or anything."

Paterson said the man had been visiting New Zealand off and on recently and worked in the hospitality industry.

"That's why we're confident where he was Wednesday afternoon," he said.

Paterson said police were trying to piece together the man's movements and what the tides were.

An autopsy is underway, however the coroner was in a difficult position until the man had been formally identified, he said.

"He had very few friends in New Zealand ... we haven't had any luck locating his family, India's a big place."

Police are appealing for any sighting of an Indian man dressed in mainly "black semi-formal clothing" in the area on Wednesday.

- © Fairfax NZ News