“Our waters... should not be underestimated. Your individual safety should never be compromised,” the company said.
“In our tikanga and akonoanga Māori, we have suspended our tours today as a mark of respect to the family and the loss that has occurred in our waters.”
In a separate incident three months ago, 73-year-old New Zealand sailor Clive Nothling died off the coast of Fiji when his yacht’s boom swung and hit him.
Another Kiwi, Karain Eketone, had his head sliced open by a boat’s propellor while he was snorkelling in Fiji in July. He survived, needing urgent surgery and a medical evacuation flight home to Hamilton.
Eketone, 42, a father of four and grandfather of two, desperately tried to protect himself as the boat sped towards him, raising his arms to his head.
Surgeons performed a craniotomy on Eketone - a procedure to remove part of his skull and a portion of his brain - and a plastic surgeon repaired one of his severed arteries.
Several days after his surgery, a doctor noticed Eketone, still sedated, was unbelievably moving his feet to music playing on the radio in the intensive care unit.
Nothling, meanwhile, was survived by his widow, who told the Herald the day after his death: “I’m heartbroken, absolutely heartbroken. I don’t know how I’m even talking right now.”
Passengers aboard the Pacific Explorer, a 2000-berth pleasure cruiser, witnessed an attempted rescue, with video footage showing Nothling’s yacht, Second Life, bobbing against its hull.