Family uncover gifted writer's talent after death

Kurt Green, left, with his brother Blair.

After he'd been missing for three weeks, Kurt Green's devastated family accepted that he had been "taken by the sea".

They visited the picturesque Blaketown Beach, near Greymouth on the West Coast of the South Island, to pay their last respects to the star skateboarder, gifted artist, and loving 30-year-old.

When his badly decomposed body finally washed up at Rapahoe Beach, some 11kms north of where he was last seen on March 9 - on the day of the Hokitika Wildfoods Festival - it was hard to take.

But the close-knit family says it did provide them with "some closure and allowed us to grieve".

Last Thursday, Mr Green - sponsored since his teens by various Christchurch skateboard shops - was laid to rest in his home city.

Only now has the family felt able to express their memories of him and say just how his disappearance affected them.

The four-and-a-half weeks he was missing was "traumatic", says a statement released by the family to APNZ.

"Each day that passed we waited desperately for news," it says.

"After the third week of no news of Kurt's whereabouts the family came to the realisation that their son, brother, uncle, nephew, cousin and friend was not coming back to us. We had to accept that the sea had taken Kurt after extensively exploring all other possibilities."

The finding of the body at least allowed the family some closure.

Now they can remember the "gifted writer and poet" who also had a talent for art, which runs in the family. His great uncle, was leading 20th century New Zealand artist, Dennis Knight Turner, who illustrated Barry Crump's books.

"Kurt was a kind, sensitive, loving and humorous young man. He loved the non-materialistic life; appreciating art, music, all animals and nature," the family says.

"He would enjoy sleeping under the stars and spending quality time contemplating the beauty of life.

"He had a unique sense of humour, he loved the quotes and drawings of Winnie The Pooh and he was clever at sketching caricatures.

"Some of his writings and thoughts - discovered only after his death - are amazing and show he was a very intelligent and articulate man.

"He will be remembered as the Kurt that was not afraid to do what he loved and to do it well, despite not conforming to the material world."

His death has been referred to the Coroner.