A father who lost two sons in an ice collapse at Fox Glacier is thankful he will be able to jointly farewell the pair, who made a pact to always be close in life.
Ronald Miranda and his wife, Winnie, returned home to Melbourne this week with the
body of one of their sons, Ashish, 24, after their New Zealand holiday turned into a nightmare.
Ashish and his brother, Akshay, 22, were killed when tonnes of ice fell on them as they were enjoying the sights of the South Island tourist attraction.
While Ashish's body was recovered soon after the tragedy, his parents had no idea if Akshay's remains would ever come home.
"There was no certainty. It could be a day, it could be a month, it could be years, it could be never," Mr Miranda told the Weekend Herald.
"It was really heart-wrenching to leave one back and come [home]."
But only a day later the parents learned changes in the glacier had freed Akshay's body, and a joint funeral could be held next Friday.
"It's a tremendous relief that finally we have got the two together, because they always were together and they loved each other," Mr Miranda said.
"They actually made a pact in front of us and said they would never fight and separate like what happens to brothers as they grow older and they have families. That was a very big thing for us."
Akshay and Ashish had very different personalities, but their only disagreements tended to be over sport - "they had very strong ideas of who their favourites were, and whose club was which".
They both enjoyed playing sports such as indoor cricket and soccer.
"Ashish, by nature, was very competitive. So whatever he did he tried to excel in that. Akshay was just there for the fun of it."
Mr Miranda said he and his wife were comforted by memories of what their sons had done, "especially on this New Zealand holiday".
"We look at how much they have packed in their 24 years and 22 years - they lived life to the full."
