After his arrest Macdonald sent Scott Guy's parents Bryan and Jo a note saying he looked forward to getting back together and laughing about the old times.
Today Bryan Guy said that would not happen and he didn't plan to have anything to do with Macdonald.
"There's no need for us to."
His daughter Anna was married to Macdonald and the pair had four children together.
They had some contact with their dad when he was in prison and that was likely to continue.
"I dare say those arrangements will be worked out," said Bryan Guy, who added that the parole decision was not unexpected.
"I would have been surprised if they had kept him in much longer. I guess it's a little bit of a difficult time leading up to this for the family. We always knew that the day was going to come and we have put it to the back of our minds to some extent.
"Really we're not focused on him. We want to focus on building good values in the children's lives and get them to know the value of telling the truth."
Bryan Guy said they would also teach the children the value of treating others as you wanted to be treated.
Macdonald met the Parole Board on Tuesday, the fourth time he had sought an early release.
His first bid for freedom was at Manawatu Prison, the last three at Rolleston Prison, near Christchurch.
Last year, the board decided Macdonald still posed a risk to the public. He had previously been described by as having "a significant personality disturbance".
While finding he no longer posed a risk, the board's decision has imposed strict conditions on Macdonald for the six months after his release, including that he will be GPS monitored, is banned from the North Island and cannot possess, own or use firearms, ammunition or restricted weapons.
He is also forbidden from contacting co-offender Callum Boe, a former worker on the Guy family farm, and must stay home at night.
He has a job and somewhere to live and the board says he's supported by friends and family, as well as professionals.
The panel that met him, Marion Frater, the convener, Philip Brinded, Lesley Campbell and Leith Comer, noted Macdonald was now seeking advice from others, which he had previously found difficult.
"He has practiced letting things go rather than holding grudges and ruminating about perceived wrongs.
"Importantly, he has also begun to share his feelings of frustration or sadness with others in prison and with members of his family."
A year earlier, the board was not satisfied that Macdonald had "addressed the deeper issues which underpinned his offending to the point where he no longer posed an undue risk to the safety of the community, and therefore declined parole".
The board then decided he needed "ongoing psychological intervention and support".
At that point he was working outside the boundaries of Rolleston Prison for three weeks. That stopped after such programmes came to a halt in the wake of the Phillip Smith escape overseas.
Macdonald is now working as a carpenter at a construction yard, the name of which was withheld by the board.
"While there he has taken the opportunity to gain further qualifications. His instructors speak very highly of him," the board decision says.
"He has not, however, been given access to further psychological treatment."
So the board said it had had to see what had changed with Macdonald over the 11 months, since his previous hearing.
"The decision of the last board came as a shock to Mr Macdonald. It caused him to focus, as he had not done before, on the safety plan he developed with a psychologist some years ago, and to make a greater effort to understand personality traits and patterns of behaviour which increase his risk of re-offending.
"There is clear evidence he has been endeavouring to change his behaviour, and to react to early warning signs that he is reverting to old behaviours."
Macdonald pleaded guilty to six charges, including vandalism of a new house that Scott Guy and and his wife Kylee were building, the slaughter of 19 calves with hammer blows to their heads, the theft and killing of two trophy stags, emptying a neighbour's main milk vat of about 16,000 litres of milk worth tens of thousands of dollars, and burning down a 110-year-old whare.
Macdonald's father Kerry declined to comment.
Farmer Craig Hocken, whose stags were poached, learned of the release conditions today.
Mr Hocken said he hoped Macdonald abided by his release conditions, as everybody involved needed to move on.
"It's been going on for years and years and years."
Mr Hocken said it was important Macdonald was allowed to "quietly" rejoin society,
"Other people do it. So I don't see why he probably can't."
He said "there wasn't much point" in Macdonald trying to contact him.
Mr Hocken said as Macdonald would have been free next April anyway, his release next month probably wouldn't make much difference.
He accepted the release decision, and also wanted to move on.
"That's the way the law runs. He's served his time and hopefully he's got all the help he needs."
- Additional reporting John Weekes of NZME News Service
