Brave faces as pall settles on Bluff

Mates remembered Ian "Shorty" Hayward as a "hell of a good guy who loved boating".

A freezing wind sliced through Bluff yesterday as the tight-knit community realised six of its own - four from one family - may never return home.

It was an anxious 24-hour wait for the small town following news that nine people were missing - including six spanning three generations of that family - after their boat capsized on the way home from an annual muttonbird hunting trip.

At the supermarket, in the stores and on the street, people talked quietly among themselves and had little to say to outsiders as the community rallied around the families of the missing.

Locals gathered at the Golden Age Tavern in Gore St as early as 9.30am to discuss what had happened to their friends and neighbours on the trawler Kotuku and to support one another.

Relief that the Kotuku's skipper, John Edminstin, Paul Topi and his nephew Dylan Topi had been rescued from Women's Island on Saturday night was tempered by a mounting realisation that six people were unlikely to be coming home.

The Golden Age was Ian "Shorty" Hayward's local. Yesterday, his mates remembered him as a "hell of a good guy" who loved boating.

He had decided - more or less on the spur of the moment - to go along at the weekend with his good mate Mr Edminstin, who was scheduled to pick up the Topi family from their island in the Mutton Bird group after they completed their annual hunting trip.

Mr Hayward, 52, was one of the three confirmed dead after the overnight return trip to Stewart Island went horribly wrong.

"This has been a huge blow to the whole town," said a local man who had grown up in Bluff with the Topi family and remembered Paul Topi from their school days.

There was still much confusion about what had gone on on the Kotuku, said the man, who did not want to be named.

"All we are hearing is rumours ... but it's just a wait-and-see game now. We can't do much more than that.

"It's terrible, terrible."

Other locals spoke of how the Topi family were descendants of the Maori chief Tuhawaiki, otherwise known as "the King of the Bluff", who once owned Ruapuke Island to the east of Stewart Island.

Another man said the tragedy was greater because Clinton Woods, who owned his own fishing boat, had decided to go as deckhand for the trip as a favour to Mr Edminstin.

While most people in the town of 2400 digested the news, others joined the search.

"Bluffies are great. We look after our own," said 19-year-old Corey Boyce, a member of the Topi whanau.

"Half of Bluff," including his father, had spent most of the night searching for survivors after the official search had been suspended for the night, he said yesterday.

"I'm just sick about it, we all are."

Bluff Community Board chairman Rex Powley said the community would rally to deal with the tragedy.

"First, there is a reaction, one of shock, and then you get on and support each other. They'll come through it."

Mr Powley said Mayor Tim Shadbolt had been in frequent contact and the Invercargill City Council was picking up the cost of the food being provided for the searchers.

"If there's any other way we can assist we will," Mr Powley said.

"Our job within the community is to support the families and those who are now left behind over the next days, weeks, months to try to help them through a difficult time.

"When you lose anybody it's sad ... In a smaller community it has more impact because everybody knows everybody else."

Bluff was a real community-minded town and everyone worked together.

"We know there's always a risk - we know these things can happen and do happen and I suppose to some degree it cushions the blow a wee bit."

Mr Powley said the heroes were those going out to search in atrocious conditions.

The first priority was to find those still missing as there could not be closure for the families until then.

"Anything else we can do to assist, we'll certainly look at that, but there's a limit to what you can do in a situation like this."

- OTAGO DAILY TIMES, additional reporting by NZPA