Steve Sawyer and the aftermath of the 1985 Rainbow Warrior bombing. Photo / Gil Hanly (Greenpeace)
It was meant to be a night of celebration.
On July 10, 1985, Steve Sawyer was celebrating his 29th birthday with partner Kelly Rigg and the rest of the Greenpeace crew on the Rainbow Warrior, docked at Auckland's Marsden Wharf.
It was meant to be a pit stop for the activists, who were leaving in four days for Mururoa Atoll, where they would protest French nuclear testing.
The party miraculously moved onshore. Hours later, Sawyer received a phone call with news that would change his life's trajectory.
Two bombs - later discovered to have been planted by French agents - had sunk the vessel, the second explosion claiming the life of photographer and friend Fernando Pereira.
Ever since that event, United States-born Sawyer, Greenpeace and the nuclear-free movement, became inextricably linked with New Zealand.
Sawyer died on July 31, aged 63, four months after he was diagnosed with lung cancer.
"It has been devastating," Rigg, who later became Sawyer's wife, tells the Weekend Herald from Amsterdam.
"But the outpouring of love and support from around the world has held us up."
This week hundreds gathered for a memorial at Greenpeace International's headquarters in Amsterdam. Many other memorials have been held around the world, and one is planned in Auckland on September 15 on the Viaduct.
Sawyer was born on July 10, 1956, in Boston - the same city where he would meet Rigg through Greenpeace 26 years later.
"He was a very strong-headed, opinionated person, and drove me crazy," Rigg says.
"So when I came home one evening to tell my housemates we had started dating, they were a little surprised."
Sawyer first came into contact with Greenpeace in 1978, when a canvasser knocked on his door looking for a donation. Sawyer volunteered instead.
What drew him in initially was a love of boats, and adventure, Rigg says.
Growing up around the lakes of New Hampshire, Sawyer became a skilled sailor.
He used that expertise to help refurbish an ageing British trawler for Greenpeace in the late 1970s and early 1980s - later rechristened the Rainbow Warrior, and which would become its flagship in efforts to prevent nuclear testing and to promote ecology.
In 1985, Sawyer led an expedition that would draw a lifelong sense of pride: relocating the inhabitants of the Rongelap Atoll in the Marshall Islands, poisoned by fallout from US atmospheric nuclear weapons tests.
As friend Brian Fitzgerald wrote, "The event was seared into Sawyer's heart and imagination."
Rigg had flown over to join the crew when it arrived in New Zealand in July 1985 and was on the boat the night tragedy struck.
They had only intended to be in Auckland several days, but after the bombing, stayed for months.
Sawyer looked back on that time with immense sadness for the loss of Pereira, but also fondness for New Zealand, Rigg says.
"The support in Auckland and New Zealand generally was just unbelievable."
Sawyer was on the news every night, restaurants would refuse to take their money and donations flooded in, including gear for the crew, many of whom had lost all they owned.
Sawyer told the Pacific Media Centre in a 2015 interview: "I still get choked up thinking about it, you just can't imagine that sort of response anywhere in the world."
For the French, the attack backfired, pushing the cause of the Pacific Islanders victimised by nuclear testing into the limelight, and driving massive growth and support for Greenpeace.
"The bombing was actually a very clear indication we were on the right track," Rigg says.
Sawyer's handling of the aftermath and the successful case against the French Government for damages enhanced his reputation as a leader, and in 1988 he was named executive director of Greenpeace International.
"Steve was this amazing guy who could do everything," Rigg says.
"He could sail, fix motors, come up with amazing strategies for our campaigns, look after finances, and was also a brilliant public speaker and writer.
"On a personal level he was generous and loyal, but also very direct - he didn't suffer fools lightly."
Greenpeace had some of its greatest triumphs with Sawyer at the helm, from Antarctica becoming off-limits to gas and oil exploration, the Montreal Protocol on ozone-depleting gases, and putting an end to radioactive waste-dumping at sea.
"Campaigns were smaller then, more targeted, and we really thought we could save the world," Rigg says.
According to many involved with the organisation, his time "marked the coming of age for Greenpeace, which had once prided itself on its ragtag mystic hippiedom".
In 1988, Sawyer received a briefing on an issue that would buoy him into the biggest battle of his life - climate change.
"We had just had a baby, and when we understood the true implications for our child's - and everyone's - future, we realised we needed to get on board, in a big way," says Rigg.
Right from the get-go, they knew the campaign would be different as, although the science was clear, there was enormous resistance from industry, lobby groups and politicians.
"It was not as simple as other campaigns, as there was not one target, not one solution, but we felt if Greenpeace could not take it on, who could?"
Sawyer spent much time campaigning against oil exploration in the Arctic and visiting indigenous communities - an area that held a special place in his heart.
After stepping down from Greenpeace, Sawyer became head of the Global Wind Energy Council, helping to boost production around the world.
"He was firmly convinced we could transform the electricity sector," says Rigg. "He was not a blind optimist, he was aware of tipping points and concerned whether it could be done in time, but he was convinced we were on the right track."
Outside of his tireless work-life - Rigg says 12 to 13 hour days were common - Sawyer was an outstanding blues guitarist, talented writer, keen sailor and proud parent of daughter Layla and son Sam.
Sawyer was also a huge advocate for women in leadership positions.
"He didn't just bang on about it," says Rigg. "He created space, mentored a lot of women and just loved it when women took centre stage.
"He was thrilled when Jacinda Ardern was elected - a strong woman at the helm, with a sense of integrity and values."
One of those women Sawyer supported was New Zealander Bunny McDiarmid, who in 2015 became the first woman - alongside American Jennifer Morgan - to co-lead Greenpeace International.
She met Sawyer during the 1985 Rongelap evacuation and was on board the Rainbow Warrior the night of the bombing, which cemented their friendship, and his friendship with McDiarmid's partner, Henk Haazen.
"That was a very shocking time for everyone," says McDiarmid. "But he was overwhelmed by the kindness of New Zealanders, and very thankful to the Māori community at Matauri Bay for offering a resting place for the Rainbow Warrior."
Sawyer had been an excellent mentor when she took over the top role.
"I had really big boots to fill - I don't think Greenpeace has ever had an executive director as good as him," she says.
"He was pushing the climate issue way ahead of many of the other environmental organisations.
"He was definitely one of the good guys, in the good fight, and he will be really missed," says McDiarmid.
Firefighters remain at the scene two days later dealing with flare-ups.