Pike River: Time to mourn

Daniel Rockhouse supports his father Neville as the casket of the family’s grandfather, Ray Rockhouse, is placed in the hearse. Photo / Supplied

Pike River hero Daniel Rockhouse places one of his little brother Ben's mining hard hats on the casket. It is the funeral of their grandfather but foremost in everyone's minds are the 29 bodies they can't yet bury.

Daniel Rockhouse walked out of Pike River mine a hero, supporting the injured miner whom he'd roused from a gassed slumber and supported to safety.

Given the chance, he would have turned around and walked right back inside. To do the same for his 21-year-old brother Ben. To do the same for the other 28 miners who are believed to have died deep inside a West Coast mountain range.

If there is one thing on which the quietly spoken men of Greymouth, Runanga and the Coast agree, it is how desperately they wanted to don breathing masks and hard hats and follow that black vein of coal back into the furthest dark corners of the mine in search of their fathers, brothers, sons and friends.

The miners of the south are a community that has been devastated - time after time, generation after generation. Kaitangata, 1879. Brunner, 1896. Dobson, 1926. Strongman, 1967. And now, Pike River, 2010.

The loss of 11 men from the 10,000-strong town of Greymouth hurts bad. Eleven men who have left behind wives, partners and children; others from farther afield who had made the town their home for the time being.

Smaller communities such as Runanga, which lost five of its 1000 residents, have been devastated.

Such a tragedy, for a small community, is like a couple losing a child. The grief can rip them apart. Or it can make them stronger.

The people of the Coast are adamant they will come through this stronger. And so, too, will the Rockhouse family.

Brian Rockhouse, Daniel and Ben's uncle, said: "The Rockhouse family has never been as solid as it is now. Ben would be happy about that."

Daniel and Ben's father, Neville, is another miner - he was in charge of safety and training at Pike River. Daniel and Ben's grandfather, Ray "Rocky" Rockhouse, the patriarch of a clan of miners, died in Christchurch just a few hours after the November 19 explosion - unaware of the tragedy that was unfolding on the other side of the Southern Alps.

"It's been pretty distressing the last few days," Daniel Rockhouse told mourners at the funeral. "I haven't really had time to grieve for Grandpop.

"I know that Ben and Grandpop will be sitting at the angel bar having a jug each. I know they'll be there for each other."

Daniel Rockhouse has stood as a tower of strength for his family, comforting his mother and partner. At home in Greymouth yesterday, he insisted he was doing okay - but his face told a different story. He looked tired and drained.

The big 24-year-old has been waking in the night, crying, still dreaming about the blast.

He can still see Ben's face as his little brother walked into that mine.