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Police and the family of Wellington diver Jacqueline Ngapera are waiting for post-mortem results to try and understand why she died while diving in near-perfect conditions on the city's southwest coast on Saturday.
The 37-year-old mother-of-three became separated from her buddy while resurfacing from an early morning dive off Makara Beach on Saturday.
Wellington Search and Rescue Co-ordinator Sergeant Jo Holden said friends searching for Ms Ngapera found her body in about 20 metres of water yesterday, not far from where she went missing.
"It was very sad. She did everything right - she had a rescue sausage, a whistle and was diving with a buddy," Ms Holden told the Dominion Post.
"Something happened on her way up to be separated from her buddy."
When her diving buddy realised she was not with him, he changed his tank and went back down again, but could not find her, she said.
Ms Ngapera's divers' "sausage" - a device to draw the attention of dive boats - was found on Saturday during a massive air and search.
Her diving group raised the alarm when she failed to surface after 40 minutes underwater, about 5km off the beach at 8.30am.
Ms Ngapera had an advanced diving ticket and had dived in the area before.
"It is tragic. Until we have the post-mortem, we will not know what has happened," Ms Holden said.
Ms Ngapera's uncle John said his niece had taken up diving two years ago. "She loved it, she absolutely loved it," he said. "That was her life - the sea."
Ms Ngapera worked as a client services manager with the Crown Forestry Rental Trust in Wellington for nine years.
Trust chief executive Ben Dalton said she would be "very, very sadly missed".
About 20 staff members gathered yesterday to take part in a Maori service at work to commemorate her death, Mr Dalton said.
Police Maori iwi liaison officer Clive Puna said iwi asked for a three-day rahui as the area where Ms Ngapera's body was found was considered sacred.
- NZPA
