James David ‘‘Jim'' Hansen (63) died when the fishing boat he and Teone Te Matenga Taiaroa (81) were on foundered off Fiordland last week.
His family say the loss of the ‘‘all-round top bloke'' has hit harder following the loss of Mr Hansen's great-nephew, Josh Howard, in a car crash in Australia in January.
Mr Hansen's wife, Tonia, said she was still coming to grips with the tragic loss.
‘‘I can't take it in,'' she said.‘‘We fully expected to see him again - it doesn't feel real.''
His family gathered at his Caversham flat yesterday as they prepare to farewell the man who his son Ryan Hansen said ‘‘would do anything for you''.
‘‘He will be very much missed,'' Mrs Hansen said. ‘‘He was a good guy. He was a man's man.''
His daughter Kirsty Hansen said the family remained in the dark about how the experienced seaman died.‘‘We are all very much in shock,'' she said.
‘‘Whatever had happened is unexpected and taken them by surprise. He doesn't take risks and is extremely well organised.''
Police are still piecing together how MV Marina came to be wrecked near remote Breaksea Sound in Fiordland.
Mr Hansen spent 12 years in the Royal New Zealand Navy and was a keen fisherman.‘‘He was very, very, safety conscious around boating,'' Mrs Hansen said.
‘‘He wouldn't have taken any kind of risk. He would have done everything in his power to get them back safe.''
The family last heard from Mr Hansen on February 16 when he and Mr Taiaroa were in Westport.
‘‘He was going to get in touch with me [again] and I never heard back from him after that,'' Kirsty said.
Like Mr Taiaroa, with whom he had been friends for years, Mr Hansen had strong links to Ngai Tahu - his whakapapa was Oraka-Aparima Runaka - and had taken an interest in his ancestry.
He will be farewelled in Christchurch on March 7.
