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As disbelief and grief overwhelms those affected in Tuesday night's tragedy in the Tongariro Forest Park, more details are beginning to emerge as to what exactly happened on the adventure which turned so disastrous.
The seven victims of the tragedy were part of a larger group of 12 who had set out on a canyoning trip at 3pm on Tuesday.
They were making their way upstream on the Mangatepopo Stream on a team-building exercise, making their way up and across the river, when they got into trouble at around 4pm.
Sudden heavy rain caused the river to swell by a huge amount.
"At three o'clock there was 0.5 cumix, at 3.30pm there was 18 cumix, which is the equivalent of the Tongariro going down the river. At four o'clock it was back to 0.5, so there was a wave of water that came through within that half hour period," says Grant Davidson, CEO of the Outdoor Pursuits Centre.
With 10 members of the group swept away, police and dozens of search and rescue were dispatched.
Their work paid off, when three survivors were taken out of the river by ambulance.
Anxious families, who had driven from Auckland, had by now gathered at the centre, hoping a helicopter with night vision technology might find their loved ones alive.
However five bodies were recovered on Tuesday night and two more were recovered at day break on Wednesday.
Grief overwhelmed both outdoor pursuit staff and the 40 students who were also camping here.
"Our thoughts are with the families of the people who have died, it's just a nightmare, children go away on a school camp and they're now dead, it's a parent's nightmare," says Police Inspector Dave White.
