About 500 people spilled out of the packed auditorium at the Owaka Memorial Community Centre and filled the foyer; nearly 100 more people listened to the proceedings outside where speakers broadcast the short informal ceremony into the parking area as the Owaka community gathered to pay their respects and farewell Whetuki Sam Kopua (77), known as Sam, and Matekino Lucy Burling (60), known as Lou.
The avid fishers never returned from a fishing trip on September 16.
The Kopua and the Burling families both expressed their thanks for the show of support yesterday.
Leadman Ibbotson, of Owaka, who officiated at yesterday's memorial, spoke on behalf of the roughly 80 members of the two families present as he closed the afternoon's proceedings.
''The families have been pretty humbled today,'' he said.
''By the amount of people here, it's pretty obvious the esteem that they held.
''Normally Sam and Lucy are the giving ones, and I don't know that the families are used to be on the other [receiving] side.''
Just before the Kopua and Burling families arrived about 2pm, the Catlins Area School kapa haka group performed and paid tribute to the Ngati Porou heritage of the two friends.
Songs, poems, and laughter accompanied the tears at yesterday's service.
Mrs Burling was remembered as a woman with a love for the sea, for kai moana, and for being a proud mother and grandmother, who loved and missed her husband Terry, who died in a workplace accident in 2001.
She was the fifth child and the oldest daughter in a family of 12.
She moved to the South Island in her early 20s to work in shearing sheds and fell in love.
Mr Kopua, the youngest of seven, left school at the age of 15. His employer lied about his age so he could be licensed to drive the machinery he was using in his first job at the Ministry of Works.
He was known to many in the room as ''uncle Stump'' due to his diminutive stature, but he was also remembered as a ''mighty totara in the forest of Tane''.
He was remembered as a gentleman and as a man who dearly loved the wife he left behind, Lenore.
A sign at the back door of Mr Kopua's Owaka home reads, ''A fisherman and the catch of his life live here''.
Some members of the crowd wore New Zealand Fire Service uniforms. Mr Kopua served on the Owaka Volunteer Fire Brigade for 22 years.
Many in the crowd were members of the Catlins Land Search and Rescue team that searched for the pair.
Mrs Burling was a member of the team.
The families collected koha in donation boxes for Catlins LandSAR at the memorial.
