Hayden Marshall-Inman was a tour guide from Whakatāne when disaster struck on December 9, 2019.
He was among the 22 people who died when Whakaari/White Island erupted and one of two people whose bodies were never recovered.
Hayden's brother Mark Inman spoke with The Project's Patrick Gower ahead of the third anniversary of the tragedy and said he remembers that day vividly.
"I had a few school groups at the holiday park at the time, and they said, 'Oh, Whakaari just erupted. Is everything going to be okay?' And I said, 'Yeah, I haven't heard from my brother, so he'll let me know if there's something wrong'."
Mark has returned to the island since, but it's much more than just painful memories.
"It's a healing when you go out there," Mark said. "I've always counted myself lucky to have a monument such as Whakaari out there to see my brother. It's something special."
And three years on, he believes it's time to open Whakaari up to the public once again.
"I 100 percent think we should go back to the island. The island's erupted for hundreds of years. Thirty thousand people a year would visit the island... We've always said it was at the right place but at the wrong time," he told Paddy. "So, we'd have no issue with tourism starting back up on the island."
The documentary The Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari will hit Netflix on December 16.
