Search continues for missing fishermen

The coast guard returns to the wharf to give an update at Port Waikato. Photo / Christine Cornege.

The search for two fishermen missing at Port Waikato enters its third day today.

The police Eagle helicopter will be searching the area near the mouth of the Waikato River where searchers earlier found the boat that Arthur Brown, 67, of Tuakau, and a 57-year-old friend from Pahiatua, Manawatu, had been fishing in.

The pair set off on Easter Monday, and were reported missing when they failed to return home that night.

The boat was found capsized on Tuesday morning.

Yesterday, search teams managed to access the boat, revealing the two mates were not inside. Nothing else of note was discovered, police said.

If anything significant was found today, search and rescue teams would be sent to the area, a police spokeswoman said.

The Eagle helicopter would also be searching the Manukau Bar area where a 74-year-old man has been missing for a week. He was one of two men in an 18-foot boat that overturned while crossing the Manukau Bar via the south channel about 5pm on Thursday last week.

Friends on a nearby boat managed to pull one man from the water unhurt, but the elderly man did not surface.There was also no sign of him today, police said.

Meanwhile, a kayaker missing on Lake Coleridge in Canterbury since Saturday has also not yet been found. The man was spotted by a member of the public struggling in the water after apparently falling out of his kayak. The search for him would continue today.

Earlier this week, police divers from Wellington had been helping in the search. The three incidents brought the Easter holiday boating toll to four.

A police spokeswoman said Canterbury police search and rescuers were leading the search and recovery operation for the kayaker.

She confirmed the missing man was a member of the New Zealand Army who went to Lake Coleridge for a recreational trip, rather than part of any military training or exercise.

Police divers have covered over an acre of the silty and rocky lake floor at depths approaching 30m in water averaging around 14C.

The New Zealand Navy joined the search effort yesterday and used a sonar scan to examine more of the lake.

Another land search of the surrounding shore was undertaken by Defence Force personnel with some of the missing man's friends and family yesterday.

The missing man's family, who are being supported by the army and Canterbury police, have asked for privacy while the search continues.

Coleridge Intake Rd will remain closed from Algidus Rd to the intake while the recovery operation is underway.