Search for missing Tararua tramper Darren Myers focuses on chocolate bar wrapper and footprints

Monday, 10 June 2019

Members of the search and Rescue team at search headquarters at Masterton's Hood Aerodrome. From left, Pet Cunningham, Anthony Harmer and Joe Hansen

A chocolate bar wrapper and boot prints are the only clues to the whereabouts of Darren Myers, 49, still missing in the Tararua Range.

On Monday, after nine days of searching, Sergeant Tony Matheson said the focus was on the two bits of information which could hold the key to finding the missing tramper.

Missing tramper Darren Myers has not been heard from since May 30.

According to Matheson, on Saturday a search team found a chocolate bar wrapper wedged in rocks in the headwaters of Arete Stream.

'This is an isolated area and is 600 vertical metres below Arete Bivouac where Darren was last known to be.

Police search and rescue incident controller Pete Cunningham at the Wairarapa Search and Rescue headquarters at Masterton's Hood Aerodrome.

Police search and rescue incident controller Tony Matheson talks about day five's search efforts to find missing Wellington tramper Darren Myers.

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Searchers comb areas of interest on the ridges of the Tararua Ranges on Sunday, eight days into a search for missing tramper Darren Myers.

'We know he had this brand of chocolate bar with him,' Matheson said.

The wrapper was in a 'very good condition' and had an expiry date of 2020. 'So we are hopeful it belonged to him.'

The severe wind conditions in the park could have played a part in how the wrapper arrived in the Arete Stream.

A second search team on Saturday located a series of boot prints in mud on the route near the Arete Bivouac.

The boot prints were infrequent and indicated a single person travelling on the Northern Crossing route prior to the recent snow fall, Matheson said.

'Due to the age of the boot prints there is no pattern to assist with identification but we suspect they belong to Darren and date back to the day he left Arete Bivouac.'

There were still several three-person search parties actively looking for Myers on Monday.

Police search and rescue incident controller Pete Cunningham said an independent team of experts arrived at search headquarters at Masterton's Hood Aerodrome to assess the operation and decide on the next step.

Cunningham said every effort had been made to search the area both on foot and from the air but the territory was extremely steep and challenging.

Most searches ended in a positive result of some kind and it was tough not to have found Myers by now.

'The possibility is, and we have cases in the past, where people have slipped and fallen and we cannot safely search those places.'

He said a curled up person only covered a metre square and the area of interest covered hundreds of square kilometres so it was impossible to search every possible spot.

Myers started his tramp on Tuesday, May 28, with the intention of hiking across the Northern Crossing to Mt Holdsworth base in Carterton district.

His last communication was a text to his wife on the morning of Thursday, May 30, from Arete Bivvy in the centre of the ranges.

After he failed to emerge on the following Saturday a search was initiated on Sunday, June 2.

Considerable police, Air Force and volunteer resources have been dedicated to the search over the last nine days.

Myers' wife and family members planned to take a helicopter up to visit Arete Bivvy and the place where Myers entered the forest park.

Brother-in-law Duncan Styles said they wanted to see the territory for themselves so they could get a sense of where Myers had been.