Pike River: Grieving father's plea

Sheryll and Marty Palmer with photos of their son, Brendon, lost in the Pike River disaster. Photo / Mark Mitchell

He has to accept he has lost a son. But Marty Palmer won't give up until he has his son's body back with the family so they can mourn properly.

"All we think about is that they get in that mine and get them out," Mr Palmer said of the 29 men - including his son Brendon, 27 - pronounced dead after a second devastating explosion in the Pike River mine on Wednesday.

"Getting them out will be the top priority, that's for all the families. With today's experts, I think it can happen. It might take a wee bit longer, but we have to give it a go. I'll keep going as long as it takes."

The chief executive of Pike River Coal, Peter Whittall, has vowed to recover the bodies of his men for their families.

But any attempt could be weeks away because the mine is again filling with dangerous gasses.

Entering it could trigger a third explosion, and experts are working on high-tech solutions to avoid that.

Police Superintendent Gary Knowles said it was impossible to set a time on when the recovery attempt would be made.

Mr Palmer knows the problems of retrieving those 29 bodies as he, too, works in the Pike River mine.

Seeing the photographs of the dead in newspapers and on TV is difficult for him.

"You look at the photographs and I know most of them and speak to most of them every day on some part of my travels."

It is not yet known if the mine will reopen, but Mr Whittall says he is confident many miners will be willing eventually to go back to work there.

And, despite his loss, Mr Palmer thinks he probably would be among them.

"I'm a coal miner, and that's what I always will be. I would [go back to work] for the boy, and keep at it."

Mr Palmer said he and his family went into the briefing with police and the mine company on Wednesday clinging to last threads of hope.

"We thought it might have been good news, and it was a bombshell. That was it, really."

But he has only praise for those who tried to mount a rescue of the trapped miners.

"They gave it 100 per cent, and they are still battling. They are still giving it 100 per cent to get the fellas out."

It was a "day-to-day struggle" coping with his son's death, which came eight years after he lost his 18-year-old daughter, Christine.

"You have got to stay strong or you will go downhill pretty quickly."

While the Palmers have lost a son, Rachelle Weaver has lost the father of their unborn child.

Her fiance, Josh Ufer, 25, is another man who will not walk out of the Pike River mine.

But Ms Weaver, four months pregnant, and those around her are determined that the child will grow up knowing what a good man he was - and what an "exceptional father" he would have been.

"I suppose that's one of the real benefits of the digital age - there are so many photos and videos of him ... the [child] will really get to know his father," Ms Weaver's mother, Nancye Langley, told the Herald.

Mr Ufer, an Australian, had only recently come to New Zealand to work in the mine and quickly fell in love with Ms Weaver.

They had planned to travel to Australia in the New Year to have an Australian baby.

Now the child will be born in New Zealand, but "with a passport" to visit family in Australia.

"It's as much an Australian baby as a New Zealand baby," Ms Langley said. "But we have to get the baby into the world safely first."

Ms Weaver was there on Wednesday when Mr Whittall broke the devastating news that there had been a second explosion, after the first on Friday, and that the miners could not have survived.

She collapsed after hearing the news and was taken to hospital to be checked over, "but baby is fine".

"She was just a wee bit dehydrated," Ms Langley said.

"She is still, as you would expect, shocked and distraught. At the moment it's minute by minute, and then it will be hour by hour, and day by day."

Getting Mr Ufer's body out of the mine was now crucial.

"[Officials] have assured us that they will do everything they are able to do to facilitate that, and all of the families have told them we expect them to do everything they can to facilitate that."

Mr Ufer was the "total package" - kind, generous, funny and "completely devoted to my daughter", Ms Langley said.

"He would have been an exceptional father."