Hopes fading for missing Dunedin hunter

Searchers gather at the base of operations. Photo / NZ Police

The family of a Dunedin hunter missing in South Canterbury accepts he may not be coming home.

Murray Edge, 64, has been missing since 8.30pm on Sunday, after he became separated from the friend he was night hunting with on a farm about 40 minutes inland from Timaru.

Mr Edge had not been seen or heard from since.

His wife, Marilyn Edge, told the Otago Daily Times last night police did not expect to find her husband alive.

The search had been scaled down to ''recovery mode'', she said.

The family were upset ''but it's a bloody good way for him to go,'' she said holding back tears.

By noon on Monday, the family had accepted he would not be returning home, she said.

''He is extremely capable. If he was able to get out, he would have walked out. It's so uncharacteristic. He's been hunting for about 50 years.''

Her husband was a supervisor at the Green Island and Mosgiel wastewater treatment plants and was a month from retirement.

Mr Edge had an operation for bowel cancer in February but was in good health.

''This was his third hunting trip since the surgery,'' she said.

The couple had discussed him taking a personal locator beacon but decided the area was not a place he needed one, as he had spent a lot of time hunting there.

''The couple of places he would want one of those was Fiordland and Stewart Island, both of which he has hunted.

''This is just some paddocks up the side of the road he has been hunting consistently for the last five years, so he knows it like the back of his hand.''

The hunting companion was a friend from Dunedin and was ''very upset'', she said.

After her husband was reported missing, Mrs Edge and their daughter Jo Renton travelled together from Dunedin to Fairlie and their son, Garrick Edge, and his wife had come from the West Coast to assist with the search.

Canterbury Rural Area commander Inspector Dave Gaskin said about 60 people spent a second day searching the upper reaches of the Tengawai River yesterday including Canterbury police and volunteer search and rescue teams from Twizel, Lake Tekapo, Fairlie and Timaru, and local farmers and friends.

Insp Gaskin said the search started about 7.30am on Monday after Mr Edge's friend called for help.

The friend had spent Sunday night searching for Mr Edge before calling police from a nearby farmhouse.

There was no mobile phone coverage in the area.

Mr Edge was wearing camouflage clothing.

A helicopter was used on Monday for an aerial search.

''Unfortunately, the weather, terrain and bush cover hampered the aerial search. While the search area is quite small, it is covered in low scrub and vegetation with lots of steep gorge-type creeks, Insp Gaskin said.

''Combine this terrain with the camouflage clothing that Murray was wearing and you can appreciate how challenging and time consuming it will be to search the area properly.''

Insp Gaskin said low cloud and rain was slowing down the search and the poor weather conditions were forecast to continue.

Mr Gaskin said the Canterbury police had analysed the GPS data of the searched areas to prioritise the areas to search today.