Wellington, Feb 5 NZPA - The bodies of two members of a New Zealand woman's family killed in the massive Haiti earthquake last month have been returned to New Zealand.

Nelson woman Emily Sanson-Rejouis' husband, French-Haitian UN worker Emmanuel Rejouis, and daughters five-year-old Kofie-Jade and three year-old Zenzie Sanson-Rejouis died in the Karibe hotel in Port-au-Prince where the family was staying.

Mrs Sanson-Rejouis and the couple's daughter Alyahna, two, survived and were evacuated from Haiti to the Dominican Republic.

Her sister Rachel Sanson said today their mother Jennie Wilson had accompanied the bodies of Mr Rejouis and Zenzie back to Nelson.

"We are still focused on trying to recover Kofie-Jade and bring her home -- the partially collapsed building is too unsafe for SAR (search and rescue) teams to make a recovery, and needs to be carefully demolished to enable safe access," she wrote on a Facebook page set up for the family.

Mrs Sanson-Rejouis and Alyahna are in Miami with their father Roger Sanson and Emmanuel's sister Guerdy, Ms Sanson said.

"Emily is aware of and immensely grateful for the outpouring of support -- thank you to all who are sending messages, offers of assistance, posting photos and memories, and making contributions towards Emily and Alyahna's costs and future."

The family held a morning service in Miami on January 30 "to honour Emmanuel, Kofie-Jade and Zenzie, and bless Emily and Alyahna", Ms Sanson wrote in an earlier post.

In the afternoon the family met Emmanuel and Kofie-Jade's caskets as they arrived in Miami and it had been a "very emotional" day, she said.

"We hope to have all the family together in New Zealand in the next few weeks."

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