Police have confirmed the search for three people swept into rough seas off the coast of New Plymouth is now a body recovery operation.
Earlier today police released the names of the rock-climbing instructor and two 17-year-old boys as Bryce John Jourdain, 42, and Stephen Lewis Kahukaka-Gedye, both from New Plymouth, and Joao Felipe Martins De Melo, known as Felipe Melo, of Brazil.
The principal of the New Plymouth school the boys attend says those who knew the pair will be feeling a sense of helplessness.
Spotswood College principal Mark Bowden says the school has Victim Support, special education counsellors and the school's own counsellors among those providing support for students after two 17-year-old boys and an instructor missing from a rock-climbing exercise at Paritutu on Wednesday.
The two boys were swept into the sea and the instructor jumped into the water to help them.
Mr Bowden told Radio New Zealand Thursday was an individual development day for the 800 students and normal classes were not being held.
However, students were able to come in and carry on with their normal routine.
The school was trying to support the school community and the wider community as best it could following such a tragedy, he said.
Mr Bowden confirmed the Brazilian student had stayed on longer in the country than originally planned because he was enjoying himself so much in New Plymouth.
The school was in touch with the families of both the local student and the Brazilian exchange student, through police, Mr Bowden said.
The school still did not know how it happened, and for those students who went down the scene on Wednesday there would have been a sense of helplessness and the need to do something.
Mr Bowden said the Taranaki Outdoor Pursuits and Education Centre was set up by all Taranaki schools 25 years ago, and had been a highly successful venture.
Students had been climbing the rock at Paritutu for years, he said.
NZN