Among those to speak were Kaitaia couple Robert Brown and Jacqui Pont, who were fleeing the flames when the chopper crashed.
Mr Brown paid an emotional tribute to the men who had died trying to save their lives.
He had never met them, but felt he now knew them personally. "You are heroes in my heart forever ... We are so lucky we can still wake up every day to our children. I honestly can't express how sorry we are," he said.
Mr de Ridder's last flight started at Kaikohe airfield, the six aircraft flying over the Bay of Islands in a broken-V formation, symbolising a missing pilot, before a flyover of the airport, landing in a row opposite the hangar.
Friends and family spoke of Mr de Ridder's skill and professionalism as a pilot, his formidable skills at the bridge table, his talent for IT and love of spreadsheets. They spoke of a man who could be grumpy and gruff, who took his time sizing people up before saying hello, who mentored pilots and adored his three grandchildren.
Salt Air boss Grant Harnish described him as the rock of the company, an utter professional and "a man of very precise habits".
Videographers who used him for shooting helicopter scenes said he was the best in the business; tourists he took on scenic flights raved about the gentleman who always tipped his hat to the ladies.
He could be a stickler for doing things his way, but had mellowed in recent years and become "a big old softie" who had found "a really happy place".
A week before the accident he had been fighting a forest fire at Horeke where all the crew noticed the softening: "They said, 'Prickles, he's so happy'."
Alan Macrae, William Macrae's younger brother a fellow DoC ranger and firefighter, said seeing Mr de Ridder's chopper arriving at a fire with a monsoon bucket was always a welcome sight.
From that moment on he knew the battle would start shifting in the firefighters' favour.
His brother would have had no hesitation getting into a chopper with Prickles, the safest pilot he knew.
"He was a hero to me, and I know he's a hero to the people on the Karikari Peninsula."
Speaking on behalf of about 20 Karikari residents who travelled to the funeral, kaumatua Alan Hetaraka said they owed much to the two men and everyone else who had fought the fire.
"We have come here to say thank you for saving us, for thinking of us," he said.
"A lot of whanau here today were chased into the sea by the ferocity of the fire ... John and William went to look for them, and we will never, ever forget."
Mr de Ridder left the airport on Russell Fire Brigade's 1948 Ford V8 fire truck for a private cremation, while friends gathered at Kerikeri Fire Station.
Firefighters and DoC staff came from every corner of the North, including a Rawhiti rural fire crew who had come straight from the Horeke blaze.
Mr de Ridder is survived by his wife Carol, daughter Helen and her family in Wanganui, son Logan and family in Haast, and brother Phil in Canada.
