After her 16-yearold daughter Natasha drowned trying to escape a swollen river while on a school canyoning trip, mum Nikki Bray felt like every day was going to be a life sentence.
Natasha was one of the six students – along with their teacher from East Auckland’s Elim Christian College – who were swept to their death in the flooded Mangatepopo Canyon. It was an unthinkable tragedy that should never have happened.
At the time, husband Andy unintentionally became the media spokesperson on behalf of the bereaved parents, as the whole nation sympathised with them all. Then a decade on, Nikki’s “second worst nightmare” happened.
Although her husband’s health had always been precarious, Andy, 62, suffered a heart attack on the operating table and passed away a few hours later. (He had lost all kidney function in his early twenties, had three kidney transplants and was believed to be one of the longest-living dialysis patients in New Zealand.)
Nine months before Andy’s death,
