After battling the disease for years it had spread throughout his body and he keenly felt the importance of spending time with family and travelling to exotic places.
"He had the feeling he was not staying long on this planet," his son Simon Wilde told the Herald.
So together they embarked on a whirlwind adventure that included Costa Rica, Australia and New Zealand.
In New Zealand they had also been able to go canoeing with an old friend from Wellington. They had flown into the capital city and spent three days there before heading north.
Simon Wilde said he was glad he took the chance to travel with his father and felt it imparted one powerful message about living life in the present.
"One day there is no next time."
A particularly sad aspect of his passing was that he would not be able to walk his daughter down the aisle for her wedding later this year, he said.
That was something that she always wanted, he said.
Simon Wilde said he was incredibly moved by a ceremony conducted with senior constable Barry Shepherd and Ngāti Hikairo in which a rāhui was placed upon the mountain.