[ad_1]
Supplied
Reverend Samata Iusitini Leiloa died at Auckland’s Millennium Hotel on Monday.
The man who died in an Auckland-run isolation facility was in New Zealand to reunite with his wife, after a year of separation due to border closures.
Reverend Samata Iusitini Leiloa, 63, died at the Grand Millennium Hotel in Auckland City on Monday, after arriving from Apia in Samoa on Christmas Day.
His nephew, Māngere-Ōtāhuhu Tauanu’u Local Board member Nick Bakulich, said the death took his family by surprise.
Leiloa was in New Zealand to visit family, friends, and her local church, as well as to finally see his wife, who is a resident of Auckland.
READ MORE:
* Covid-19: New Zealand-based Samoans cancel Christmas trips home to protect loved ones
* Covid-19: Tuvalua future mother abandoned in New Zealand far from her husband and first-born
* Coronavirus: The week that changed everything, again
“We were in a state of disbelief after hearing the news on Monday night,” Bakulich said.
Radio Tarana
Act Party leader David Seymour speaks with Radio Tarana’s Vandhna Bhan about problems with the government-run isolation facilities.
“We’ve been trying to figure things out and it gets easier as time goes on.”
Leiloa was the church minister at the Christian Congregational Church in the village of Fa’atoia in Upolu.
He lived in Auckland for several years before returning to Samoa, Bakulich said.
Esther Lauaki / Things
Leiloa’s nephew, Nick Bakulich, says his uncle was supportive and had a “very dry sense of humor.”
Leiloa had a career as an orderly at Auckland City Hospital and later as a prison warden at the Mt Eden Correctional Facility, where he was known as Justin.
“He was always very supportive of his family, especially his nieces and nephews, always supporting their efforts in school or sports,” Bakulich said.
“He had a very dry sense of humor and was very skilled in carpentry.”
Leiloa graduated from Malua Theological College. He is survived by his wife, brother and three sisters.
Although the coroner was informed of her death, Leiloa is said to have died of natural causes.
MIQ Acting Deputy Executive Director Andrew Milne said the cause of death is unlikely to be related to Covid as Leiloa had no symptoms and came from a country without local transmission of the virus.
His funeral will be held next Tuesday at the Samoa Congregational Church in Gray Lynn.
