Overwhelming support brings some comfort

The family of the helicopter pilot who died while responding to a major blaze on the Karikari Peninsula last year say they have been overwhelmed with kindness and support from Northlanders and around the world.

Kerikeri pilot John "Prickles" de Ridder and Department of Conservation ranger William Macrae were on a fire reconnaissance flight on November 30 when their helicopter crashed into the sea. Six months later, Prickles' wife Carol said the family wanted to thank the people of Northland for their overwhelming help and support.

Daughter Helen de Ridder, who lives in Wanganui, said the family had received "amazing messages" from all over New Zealand and the world. Cards and emails had arrived from South Africa and Canada, the UK and Afghanistan. She had been contacted by people she had never met but who had known her father from his time in Wanganui, Johnsonville and elsewhere.

Carol said the family had been shown great support by all those involved in the search on the night of the fire, such as fire brigades, Rural Fire, the Fire Service, DOC and Coastguard. Love and support had come from many others, including Prickles' colleagues at Salt Air, her colleagues at Countdown, her friends in the Kerikeri Patchworkers' and Quilters' Club and the bridge community in which Prickles had had a formidable reputation as a player. The support from Northland had been extraordinary, and was deeply appreciated.

"I didn't really realise how many people Dad had touched ... there weren't many people who didn't know who Prickles was," Helen said.

Carol said the pain was no less now than after the crash, but it helped to know people were thinking of her. "People are still ringing up to support me. It's just amazing. They'll ring up to make sure I'm fine, to see if there's anything they can do," she said.

The de Ridder and Macrae families were presented with the proceeds of a mayoral fund appeal last month, as well as posthumous Citizen's Awards from Far North District Council.

The de Ridders' share of the fund will help pay for a family get-together in August, in Haast, where Carol and Prickles' son Logan lives with his partner Mirielle Maxwell and their daughters Tahlia, 18 months and Willow, 3 weeks. Helen will take her partner Peter McIntyre and their children, Lily, 3 and Reef, 1.

It will be the first time Carol has seen her newest grandchild, and the first time all four grandchildren have been together.

The fund will also help Logan travel to Northland in November, when the family plans to mark the first anniversary of Prickles' death.

Carol said her husband had been a humble man who would have refused the Citizen's Award if he had been alive.

"He'd say, 'I haven't done anything to deserve this.' He just loved to fly, and helping people whenever he could," she said.