A month on from the Whakaari/White Island tragedy, the family of fallen tour guide Hayden Marshall-Inman have saluted his heroic actions which they say helped save several others – including a young Australian tourist.
Nineteen people lost their lives when the volcanic island erupted underneath them on December 9, with the bodies of 40-year-old Hayden and 17-year-old Australian tourist Winona Langford yet to be recovered.
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Winona's father Anthony, 51, and mother Kristine, 46, also died in the tragedy. Her 19-year-old brother Jesse survived and is recovering in the burns unit at Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital.
Twenty-five other people remain in hospital; of the 13 who are in New Zealand hospitals, four are in a critical condition.
Today, Hayden's family will again look out from their bases in Whakatane, and nearby Ohope, to White Island and remember a man who loved and cared for others, and whose actions along with another tour guide who lost his life – Tipene Maangi – helped save the lives of others.
"I think one of the reasons why Jesse is still alive is through Hayden and Tipene looking after him on the island, making sure he was safe," his brother Mark Inman told the Herald.
"Both Tipene and Hayden put all the passengers first that day. What more could you ask.
"One of the skippers found Jesse wandering around close to where Hayden was. He helped get [Jesse] down that far."
The Langford party were part of the tour group that both Hayden and Tipene were escorting around the island.
A funeral for Winona, Anthony and Kristine was held in Sydney on December 30, with a eulogy from Jesse being read to more than 700 tearful mourners.
At a Celebration of Life service held in Hayden's memory on December 20, a helicopter pilot who helped ferry survivors off White Island spoke of how Hayden and Maangi had provided their customers' first aid, and ensured they were using gas masks, after the devastating eruption.
Inman said those comments, and other insights they had received on how Hayden had reacted in the moments after the devastating eruption had been "crucial in the grieving process".
That process had painfully started within hours of the eruption for Hayden's family, with Inman saying they were told early on that their loved one had perished.
Hayden had been found unresponsive by chopper pilot Tom Story in a stream after the eruption.
"We are close family friends of the pilots, and the skippers, so we knew within an hour or so of it happening," he said.
"The frantic-ness of it was sort of irrelevant to us. We already knew. That is the advantage of being a local and having the inside information."
Family and friends had held out hope that Hayden's body, and those of others who perished on the island, would be recovered.
But tragically, a joint NZDF and New Zealand Police recovery mission could only locate six bodies on the island.
The bodies of Hayden and Winona are believed to be in the sea.
New Zealand Police suspended the formal search for the pair on December 24.
Inman said his family were "positive" that they would be found, but were also remaining realistic.
"He is still out there as a guardian I guess of the island," he said.
"Him and Winona are still out there under the water, or not found. We are forever hopeful that they will appear at some stage. But as time passes it is more and more unlikely."
Local fishermen, cray boat crews and Coastguard were on a constant watch.
Inman said locals living around the Waihau Bay area, on the East Coast, were also carrying out daily walks along their coastline.
"Realistically that is where the current is taking them," he said.
Today, Mark and other family members will look out to White Island; a landmark to them which is now a "monument or memorial" to them.
"That is how we remember him. We have the stories we share, but really you look out every day and you see him," he said.
"The connection with the island is quite a special thing. You look out there and there is a guardian of Whakaari now ... you look at that monument every day, it is pretty impressive."
As well as thinking about Hayden, their minds will also turn to others killed or badly injured in the tragedy, and their families.
"As sad as it is for us, there is still a lot of hurt and sympathy goes out for other families," he said.
"Those burn victims, our hearts go out to them.
"Winona's brother Jesse ... what a man. He has to sit there and watch his mother, father and sister's funeral online from a hospital bed. My heart bleeds for him. It is just soul-destroying when you see that stuff."
More than 1100 people attended the celebration of Hayden's life in Whakatane.
Inman said the event was "touching" and for his family had been "eye-opening to how many hearts he has actually reached".
His generosity was immense, including his regularly leaving behind a $5 note at a local dairy for the shopper who followed him.
In the three weeks which have followed the memorial his family has been told of numerous other ways Hayden had given back to communities. That includes ongoing annual donations of $750 to a youth camp in America he had been a counsellor for between 2004 and 2015.
"It just shows the size of his heart," Inman said.
"These are the things coming out more and more as we dive into his life. He just kept on giving."
Inman said the outpouring of love and support after the tragedy to his family – and others impacted by the horrific events which occurred on the world-famous tourist destination – had highlighted the best aspects of humanity.
He described the support as "mindblowing and so humbling", with messages coming from as far away as the US, UK and Sweden from people who had previously met Hayden on tours of White Island.
"It really does emphasise how caring the whole world is. You just couldn't ask for more love and support that was given," Inman said.
"The way everyone rallied around ourselves, and the Givealittle pages set up for the burns victims, it shows there is a lot of empathy and aroha out there that people are willing to help when they can.
"In a lot of ways, that is what Hayden was."
