The Pike River Mine disaster killed 29 men. Photo / Supplied
Families of dead miners gather to remember 2010 disaster at Pike River.
Just after 3.44pm yesterday a lone piper played a lament to mark the moment an explosion ripped through the Pike River Mine, claiming 29 lives, two years before.
About 150 family members, some from overseas, attended a private gathering at the Pike River memorial garden in Atarau on the West
Coast, where 29 boulders have been laid to remember the miners who died in the disaster.
Bernie Monk, a spokesman for most of the 29 families, said it was an emotional time. "People from away have not had the support of the other families and community. We have been lucky to have that support."
The Pike River disaster - a series of three explosions between November 19 and 26, 2010 - was New Zealand's worst mining disaster since 43 men died at Ralph's Mine in Huntly in 1914.
