Pike River: Whittall - Just doing his job

Peter Whittall says keeping his composure and remaining professional matters to him. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Friday last week, Peter Whittall was meant to be meeting his wife Leanne and children to go to the new Harry Potter film.

But the Pike River Coal boss had to phone home: there had been an incident at the mine; he might be late.

The next call home was to say he was about to catch a flight to the West Coast. "I gave them all a hug and then headed off."

Yesterday afternoon, the Herald on Sunday joined Whittall on the drive from the Pike River Coal office to the entrance to the mine, where he was meeting nine bus loads of victims' families.

"I'm just doing my job," he says. "I have emotional moments. But the easiest way to cope without carrying it in to the next family I'm seeing or the next meeting is to just simply say, 'okay, what do I have to do next?' Keeping busy is helping."

At the mine, the tags of the 29 hang in a stark reminder they never clocked out.

"It's worse for the families," says Whittall, 49. "They go through the days with lots of time to sit and think, and remember. They are constantly bringing the grief everywhere with them."

Leanne and two of their three children, Heather, 14, and Morgan, 9, brought the family car on the Picton Ferry last week.

They know Greymouth: they lived there for five years before moving to Wellington earlier this year.

As Whittall broke the news of the men's fate to the nation on live TV, Leanne stood by his side, holding his hand.

"Just knowing she was behind me, holding my hand, made it easier."

Whittall says keeping his composure and remaining professional matters to him.

"The guys underground would have wanted someone in control who would make the right decisions for them, not someone who was overcome by grief. That's still to come for me."

But even he has cracked - on the Saturday, the day after the explosion.

"I'd been awake for about 40 hours and running on adrenalin. I think when I finally stopped on the Saturday night I was just overcome by the emotion over the event, for the people underground."

Yesterday, he sat up until 1.30am reading typed and handwritten letters from people around the world.

"There was one from an 80-year-old man who had written me a personal cheque for $100 to go and buy my kids an ice cream and look after them," he says.

"It was beautiful, but I have put that into the miners' trust fund."