WELLINGTON - Volunteers and conservation officers are fighting to save a pod of more than 60 pilot whales after they began stranding on a beach at the top of New Zealand's South Island on Tuesday.

Around 13 pilot whales are stranded near the base of Farewell Spit and the Department of Conservation (DOC) is trying to prevent another 50 or so in the pod stranding, said a DOC statement.

DOC staff had been monitoring the whales since being alerted to the pod of about 60 whales close to shore, south of Farewell Spit, shortly before 8 am, but at 11 am, the first whales stranded.

DOC officers are using a boat to try to shepherd the whales still afloat out to sea.

DOC Takaka ranger Greg Napp said volunteers were helping protect the stranded whales from the sun and would also help refloat the whales with the incoming tide late Tuesday.

"We are hoping we can get them afloat and further out to sea before dark when it would become unsafe for people to work in the sea trying to refloat the whales," Napp said in the statement.

A pod of 39 long-finned pilot whales died after stranding themselves on Farewell Spit on January 6.

DOC officers euthanized 27 surviving whales after 12 of the stranded whales died on the beach.