Friends and family of Bay of Plenty woman Louise Jull will farewell the extreme kayaker on Thursday.

The 26-year-old was killed while kayaking in the lower Kaituna River last Wednesday night.

Louise was a white water and extreme kayaker of international reputation.

A search and rescue operation was launched after she went missing and her body was located in the river on Thursday morning.

Her parents Adrian and Liz Jull, along with her older siblings Malcolm, Heather and Isobelle, describe Louise as a kayaker of international reputation.

Louise won the 2015 Kaituna and Wairoa extreme kayaking women's section and she gained second place in the Citreon race in Otago recently.

The Jull family say Louise was a well-respected and integral part of Okere Falls, where she lived, and indeed the New Zealand kayaking community.

'A positive role model for women in sport and a strong advocate for women in kayaking, Louise had started on a career in secondary teaching at a local Rotorua high school this year.

'Teaching young paddlers was an extra activity that Louise took great pleasure in; this will be one of her legacies to kayaking.

'Louise was paddling a lower section of the Kaituna River that she had paddled a number of times without mishap.

'The incident was a chance accident involving a highly skilled paddler practicing her sport. The two paddlers with her were very experienced, but despite their efforts they were unable to retrieve the situation.”

Louise's death has been referred to the Coroner.