Families of Fox Glacier victims grieve loss

Dido Eden and Chris. Photo / Supplied

The heartbroken partner of a skydiving veteran who died in the Fox Glacier air disaster found a poem in the days after the tragedy asking her to marry him.

Dido Eden discovered the handwritten note from her partner of six years Chris McDonald, 62, in a caravan on their Mapua property, 40km west of Nelson.

Nine people on a skydiving trip died when the plane crashed near the end of a rural airstrip last Saturday.

Bursting into tears, Eden said: "It was the worst possible thing. The poem just asked me if I would marry him in his own inimitable way. He wasn't a wordsmith, but it was beautiful.

"He was incredibly romantic. Everyone in the village would say we had a special relationship. I have never had that with anyone."

McDonald, a veterinarian and dad of two, was in his "final stretch" of working as a tandem skydive master after more than 30 years in the industry.

"He still itched so much for his skydiving but he was feeling his age, this was going to be his last little burst," said Eden.

McDonald would go skydiving in his lunchbreak in between speying cats and stitching up dogs.

"He used to pack his parachute in his little brown case; he was known as the silver fox. His bedside manner wasn't always the best, but he was an extremely conscientious vet."

McDonald's sons Scott, 18, and 15-year-old Tommy were told of the plane crash shortly after seeing their mother Sandra Oddie break her leg badly in a skiing accident at Mount Hutt.

McDonald had been an adventurer all his life, said Eden, travelling to Afghanistan, Pakistan and China in the 1970s.

The couple had planned to travel to India to do volunteer work later this year.

After working full time as a skydive master in Fox Glacier for six years, McDonald had returned to Mapua to practise at Tasman Bay Vets.

Eden said he would commute to skydive at weekends.

McDonald's funeral will be held at Seifried Vineyard near Nelson on Thursday.

Eden said: "Skydivers say if you are not living on the edge you are not living. He definitely lived his life to the full."

McDonald's best friend Rod Miller, 55, co-owner and operator of Skydive New Zealand, also perished in the crash.

The four Kiwis who died were all close friends, complicating funeral arrangements for their families.

Miller's wife of 22 years, Robyn Jacobs, 49, spoke of the close bond their families shared.

"Our kids have grown up with their kids, we are supporting each other."

She said her husband was a "fantastic father and a soul mate".

Stuart Bean, owner of Skydive Abel Tasman, made several attempts with Miller to break the world record for the number of parachutists to link arms. The pair were going to go to Florida for one final crack at the world record later this year, but Bean now faces making the trip alone.

He said: "I am sure we can break the record this time, and we will dedicate it to his memory. I know he would want me to go on and break the record."

The other Kiwi to die was Michael Suter, 32.

"We will remember the way he loved life, he lived his life to the fullest," his mum Delys said.

Tabitha Coyle, the mother of pilot Chami Senadhira's 5-year-old daughter Madison, said: "It is every parent's worst nightmare to tell a child that their other parent is dead. She cries in her sleep at night time and talks about him all the time."

Prime Minister John Key is to visit Fox Glacier next week and Transport Minister Steven Joyce was there on Friday.

A Traffic Accident Investigation Commission spokesman said it could take two years for the cause of the crash to be determined.