Paddles were raised to form a guard of honour while a haka was performed as a highly-respected and loved Queenstown legend was sent on his final journey this afternoon.
The Lake Hayes Pavilion was overflowing with people paying pay their respects to Moana-Roa 'Chief' Haare, who died last Friday while leading a commercial rafting trip on the Shotover River.
The 62-year-old, who had worked with Queenstown Rafting since 1996, had navigated his raft through the "Toilet'' rapid when it overturned.
Passengers floated to shore and Mr Haare manoeuvred the raft to the riverbank.
He had just spoken to one of the guides, when he collapsed.
Preliminary postmortem results indicated he died from a medical event.
On Sunday Queenstown Rafting renamed what was known as the "Mother'' section of the river to "Moana-Roa Chief'' in Mr Haare's memory.
Today his family thanked his employers, colleagues and friends for their efforts and support over the past week.
"All the guys down the river with Dad have been outstanding,'' youngest daughter Rea said.
"I can see why he never left [Queenstown].''
She said she had once tried to get him to visit her in Australia, which required Mr Haare to get a new passport.
When she checked on the progress Mr Haare told her "they wouldn't put me down as 'Chief'.''
"It [the visit] never happened.
"Dad...gave me some pretty hard lessons in life. This is one of them.
"Your love can extend so far and as challenging as it is, it's also quite beautiful.
"I'm just going to take that with me and keep dad in my heart.
"Keep the river of Chief flowing.''
Mr Haare's eldest daughter, Vanessa, said their father was more like a "naughty big brother'' when the girls were young "especially when Mum wasn't home'' and he liked to challenge them with things "outside our skillset at the time''.
One such occasion was when he pointed to a large hill and informed them they were going to bike up it and a "surprise'' was waiting at the top.
"It took us quite a while to get there [and] he goes 'surprise'.
"We look down and [over] the other side was a hill twice the size of the one we'd just gone up.''
Vanessa said Mr Haare was "Grandad Chief'' to her children Alani, Xavier and Quinn, the youngest he never got to meet.
"We thought he was a Chief. There was no chance of him checking out early.''
Mr Haare's partner Charmaine said she was "fortunate enough to have two chances with Chief'', a man who was a "very big part of my life''.
"He was a beautiful partner and he just made everything good.''
The music lover, pool shark, painter and taxi driver was best known for his prowess in a raft on the Shotover River, a job he loved.
"It was so nice to watch him go to work every day and be happy...he never went to work angry.
"Thank you for making that part of his life special.''
She told mourners she expected his funeral to be "big'' but wasn't prepared for the number of people who attended.
"He knew a lot of people _ it was pretty busy walking down the street.''
Totally Tourism general manager Tim Barke said after he found out about Mr Haare's death he couldn't sleep, so wrote a Maori poem in his honour which said, in part, "these friends here are ready to carry your family''.
Funeral director Heather Stephen said there was no doubt Mr Haare's death was a "great loss to all who new him and he will be sadly missed'' before quoting from AA Milne's Winnie the Pooh: "If ever there's a time when we're not together, there's something you must always remember.
"You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think.
"But the most important thing is even if we're apart, I'll always be with you.''
