Cyclone Gabrielle: Five months gone, still no sign of Joseph Ahuriri and his truck

CCTV image said to be of Joseph Ahuriri and his white truck at Waitomo Fuel Stop at Bay View at 5.46am on February 14, the last known siting of the Gisborne man now missing more than five months.

Joseph Ahuriri and his light truck remain missing, more than five months after disappearing north of Napier on the morning Cyclone Gabrielle devastated the Esk Valley, the Napier-Wairoa road and other parts of Hawke’s Bay and the East Coast.

Asked on Monday if any information had come forward to identify the man’s whereabouts after the last confirmed sighting – CCTV footage of the Gisborne man and his white Toyota Hilux leaving Waitomo Group’s Bay View truck stop at 5.46am on February 14 and heading north – police said “unfortunately” there were no updates.

He had also been recorded leaving Scenic Hotel Te Pania on Napier’s Marine Parade at 4.28am.

Ahuriri, 40, had left Gisborne to travel to Hawke’s Bay the previous day and was expected back in Gisborne, but never arrived.

Gisborne man Joseph Ahuriri, missing in Hawke's Bay since the day Cyclone Gabrielle hit on February 14.

Searches, including whanau searches along the ravaged State Highway 2 Napier-Wairoa road, which was closed for two months by the destruction of the Waikare River bridge north of Putorino and multiple slips in the area of the Devil’s Elbow, have failed to find any trace of 40-year-old Ahuriri or the vehicle.

The cyclone claimed eight lives in Hawke’s Bay, including three in the Esk Valley-Tutira area north of Napier, and Ahuriri’s disappearance continues to attract speculation as to whether he was swept away by floodwaters, swamped by slips, or whether there were other factors.

Searches included the use of a drone and specialised equipment capable of detecting objects which could have been in the slips and silt left behind by the cyclone.