Search for student continues over weekend

Serachers have been looking for Yue Gui for almost a week. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Searchers looking for a missing Chinese PhD student, believed to have been swept out to sea while doing research north of Auckland, will continue scouring the area over the weekend.

Yue Gui, 30, known as Alice, was last seen at 11pm on Saturday at the Leigh Marine Reserve Faculty, operated by Auckland University, about 80km north of Auckland. She is believed to have been swept out to sea while taking ocean temperature readings on Sunday morning.

A police Eagle helicopter did sweeps of the coast this morning, Sergeant Bede Haughey, of Warkworth police, told NZPA.

"The weather conditions today weren't good, which is why the helicopter did an aerial search as they would achieve more, but it was unsuccessful.

"The land search and rescue boys are going back in tomorrow at low tide when the sea conditions will be favourable to check some of the caves underneath the rockface at Waterfall Gully.

"They will do that on Saturday and again on Sunday, if they are unsuccessful on Saturday. We may bring the dive squad back up on Monday and Tuesday, depending on sea conditions.

"It's very rugged terrain and it's spiked with underground caves and caverns."

A notebook believed to belong to Ms Gui was yesterday found on rocks near where she was thought to have been doing her research on Sunday morning.

Its pages had been bleached by the sea so no entries were discernible.

Her footwear and her beanie have also been recovered.

Mr Haughey said he had heard nothing but glowing accounts of what Ms Gui was like.

"Everything that we've heard is that she was just a lovely girl who was committed to the sea and marine life and wanted to make a life here in New Zealand, where we're obviously strongly connected with the marine environment."

He had been speaking to her family through an interpreter every day. They are due to arrive from Beijing on Sunday.

"Her mum's obviously quite traumatised. She was hopeful early on that her daughter was just missing but she's now come to the realisation that we're looking to recover her daughter as opposed to saving her."

- NZPA