While Grey District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn seeks to secure funds for the retrieval of the bodies of the 29 men killed in the Pike River mine disaster, receivers say it will be two to four years before the bodies could be recovered.

John Key today assured distraught Pike River family members that although the mine could be sold to a new owner, the mining licence would not be transferred until the 29 victims entombed inside the pit were brought home.

As Jim Eagles found during a cruise in Okarito Lagoon, the area's most famous residents can be dauntingly camera-shy.