Kerikeri trio missing after tsunami

Three young Northlanders are among those still listed as missing after a tsunami battered Indonesia and left more than 400 dead 10 days ago.
The trio - Ryan Irissarri and David Machin of Kerikeri and Ben Gavin-Young of Waipapa - are on a year-long trip around Southeast Asia. Their last contact was from Sumatra about two hours before the tsunami struck. The tsunami was triggered by a magnitude 7.7 earthquake off the Mentawai Islands, west of Sumatra, on October 25 local time.
Joanie Irissarri, of Kerikeri, said she had not heard from her 24-year-old son since then.
However, the trio usually made contact only when they were in port once every two to three weeks. Mrs Irissarri said the trio last emailed from Sibolga, a port on Sumatra's west coast.
She believed they had just returned from surfing in the Mentawai Islands and were planning to sail north in their yacht Fat Cat, bought in Malaysia. Since the tsunami, the family had been emailing contacts in the area, asking if they had seen the boys.
From the responses, she was "pretty positive" the trio were further north at the time of the tsunami. It was possible they did not even know what had happened.
Mrs Irissarri said the family - herself, Ryan's father Robert and sister Lisa - were praying to hear from the trio soon, but had been coping well. They were, however, feeling "a bit stirred up" yesterday because of the dozens of phone calls since the identity of the missing travellers was revealed.
The family of David Machin, 24, also believed he was safe and were "trying hard not to be too concerned".
His father's partner, Sorrel Bovett, said David sent an email to his large, close-knit family - he has seven brothers and sisters, all but one in the North - about once a week. However, in his last message, he said it would be two to three weeks before they could be in touch again.
"They're probably surfing somewhere, having a great time and completely oblivious," Ms Bovett said.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokeswoman Mere Mulu-Martin believed the trio's yacht had left Sibolga and was heading towards the Mentawais on October 25. Information from the families, however, suggested they may have been heading further north. One of the families had contacted the New Zealand embassy in Jakarta on October 27 with concerns for the trio.
Mrs Irissarri said the trio had been having a fantastic time surfing, sailing and fishing on a trip they had been talking about since their early teens.
A Facebook message left by Ben on July 9 read: "Time 2 get away from civilisation 4 5 months and get real feral on Sumatra's West Coast."
The current toll from the tsunami is 431.