WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP)  About 125 pilot whales died in New Zealand after being stranded on two beaches over the weekend, but vacationers and conservation workers managed to coax 43 others back out to sea on Sunday.

On North Island, rescuers monitored the survivors as they swam away from Colville Beach on the Coromandel Peninsula, and by Monday morning they were reported well out to sea.

Workers for the Conservation Department and hundreds of volunteers helped refloat the 43 whales at high tide. The volunteers covered the stranded whales in sheets and kept them wet through the day.

“Some 63 pilot whales stranded, but it looks pretty good, we’ve got 43 live ones,” said a department ranger, Steve Bolten, as the pod swam out to sea.