Search resumes for missing students, instructor

Crews on land and water have resumed the search for the three people missing off the coast of New Plymouth.

Stephen Kahukaka-Gedye, Felipe Melo, and Bryce Jourdain went into the sea on Wednesday afternoon and haven't been seen since.

Inspector Frank Grant says boats are back out searching, as well as land crews.

"We will have a ground crew including army personnel along with our volunteers and our police search personnel doing the shoreline search again. We've got alpine rescue staff who will be deployed around the rock cliff itself."

Frank Grant says it still remains too dangerous for the Police Diver Squad to enter the water.

There's a feeling of disbelief in the New Plymouth community right now.

Two Spotswood College students who fell from Paritutu Rock and the instructor who dived into the sea after them, haven't been seen since Wednesday.

Police are treating the operation as a body recovery mission.

New Plymouth Mayor Harry Duynhoven says outdoor activities are a way of life in Taranaki.

"A lot of people find it hard to believe after generations of kids have been through outdoor education courses with TOPEC and with the various schools, to have an incident like this is a big shock."

Mr Duynhoven is heartened by the way people have pulled together to support each other.

He says the council has been flooded with kind messages and expressions of support and sympathy for the families.

"Turning up at school with food, with all sorts of stuff to try and help out in some way, and that's been a very, very good outpouring of community support."

Mr Duynhoven says there's also been huge support for Police and the rescue services involved.

The principal of Auckland's Elim Christian College knows what it feels like.

Murray Burton lost six students and a teacher in the Mangatepopo canyoning disaster in 2008.

Mr Burton says it's important family of friends of those lost, let grief take its natural course.

"They're now going to embark on a very long journey of recovery and processing what has happened and gaining some sort of sense of normality back into their lives that will take an awful long time."

Mr Burton says some sort of sense will come of this latest tragedy, but it'll be a long journey.

"A whole range of things will happen now, and they're just going to have to get a whole of good support around them, and hang together. Nothing will be found out overnight, things will take time to come to the surface."

Mr Burton says it's important grief can take its natural course.

Meanwhile there are questions over whether outdoor instructors let their students take too much risk.

Andy Bray lost his daughter Natasha in the 2008 Elim School tragedy at Mangatepopo.

He says he's not sure outdoor instructors always act as a parent would in terms of safety

"I'm all in favour of risk, maybe a broken arm or something like that, but you shouldn't lose your life."

Mr Bray says the Paritutu families can be assured the Department of Labour will step up and see all the questions they have are answered.

Mr Bray says the families will have many - as yet unanswered questions - about what went wrong.

"One of the things your glad of is the Department of Labour and people like that who step in for you and fulfil that task for you because you really do want to know - you want to know every little detail. What took place? What was going on? Where was my child?"

Photo: Supplied