Kayaker died doing what he loved

Ladislav Svarc was much-loved by his work colleagues and his "big circle" of friends in New Zealand.

Czech Ladislav Svarc was an experienced whitewater kayaker who took to the waters throughout the North Island with his friends most weekends, his boss said.

As news of Mr Svarc's death on the Wairua River, west of Whangarei, on Saturday spread to his colleagues at Auckland-based Device Technologies New Zealand, managing director Peter Mears said it would be difficult to replace an employee with such a lot of skills, but he died doing what he loved.

Mr Svarc was with three others, off Puketitoi Rd, about 1.30pm when he struggled at the bottom of the falls and got caught in the rapids.

He lived in Ponsonby and had been a service technician for Device Technologies for four years. He came from the Czech Republic about six years ago and although he didn't have a family, Mr Mears said he had a "big circle" of friends in this country.

Mr Svarc specialised in servicing medical equipment.

"He was an outgoing, energetic, fun-loving and caring guy and he and his friends would go kayaking most weekends to the central North Island and to Northland," Mr Mears said from Sydney where he and other employees are at a conference. He said Mr Svarc, 29, and his friends canoed at Wairua River in the past.

Mr Mears is in touch with Mr Svarc's parents in the Czech capital Prague and his brother in London.

A Northland farmer and his fiancee watched Mr Svarc and three other kayakers limber up and get kitted out before they kayaked the flooded waterfall.

Paul Snelling and Azra Millett had gone to look at the falls on the river that ran through the farm where they reared calves for a local farmer.

"I'd been there in mid-June when we had a lot of rain and and took a video of the falls and it was phenomenal. We went back on Saturday just to see what they were like after this last storm," Mr Snelling said

"It sounded like they knew what they were doing and they had been there before. One Kiwi guy was putting a Go -Pro camera on his helmet."

He didn't see the men launch when he left at 1pm on Saturday and it wasn't until Sunday that he knew about the tragedy.