Police have told his family they believe his body may be in a deep pool.
His mother, Adriana Colamarde, has arrived in New Zealand, supported by fundraising efforts
WARNING: Graphic content
The desperate family of an Argentinian hiker missing in the South Island wilderness is getting confronting news from police — and his mother is starting to accept her only son’s fate.
Hector Gaston Artigau, 21, was last seen two and a half weeks ago when he fell from a rock into a river in a gorge during a tramping trip in Mt Aspiring National Park.
Artigau was on the Rob Roy Glacier Track with two other hikers when the accident happened on February 6.
At home in Pergamino, a small city in Buenos Aires Province, his mother Adriana Colamarde was holding out hope for her son’s survival.
Desperate for answers and struggling to cope from so far away, she arrived in New Zealand with help from fundraising on February 15.
Hector Gastón Artigau, of Argentina, has been missing for two and a half weeks.
Artigau’s English teacher Andina Kallenbach, who has been in daily contact with his mother, told the Herald she and Artigau’s uncle Carlos Colamarde were getting difficult information to hear from police.
“The police think that the body is where they found the backpack and trekking shoes and all that at the fourth pool. It’s very deep, they think between seven or eight metres deep, and probably the body is behind one of the waterfalls ... or subaquatic caves,” Kallenbach said.
“They really cannot find it, they can’t find the body. And they are not looking, in fact, this is very hard what I’m about to say, but they think that probably it will not be one body, but parts of the body because of the strength of the water.
“It’s very hard for the family and for everybody, but that’s what the police are saying at this moment,” she said.
She said his family was pleased to have made it here thanks to the generosity of others.
Artigau’s uncle has visited Mt Aspiring National Park since arriving. Colamarde had stayed in Wānaka. A member of the public has given up their apartment for the pair while they stay in New Zealand, Kallenbach said.
“They are really thankful with people from Wānaka. People are very kind with them. They always tell me that they are very kind at the supermarket, even in the streets and all that.”
The family of Hector Gaston Artigau (centre) are in New Zealand as police continue to search for his body.
For his uncle, being able to visit the area where Artigau was missing had brought a sense of peace.
“He has said he could be in communion with the place. They can start accepting it in the place that it happened. For him, he was finding a sense of peace. When you look … on Google Maps or on pictures, you don’t see the dimension and the power of nature.
“But when you are there and you listen to the water, I don’t know, you see the power of the mountain, the slopes, the paths. He realised in what a dangerous place Gaston had been.”
A police spokeswoman told the Herald today there were no updates on the search.
Raphael Franks is an Auckland-based reporter who covers breaking news. He joined the Herald as a Te Rito cadet in 2022.
