Family say missing man is safe

Chelsea Boyle

A man missing for 47 days, sparking a transtasman search, has been found.

Amanda Blake told the Herald yesterday her brother, Paul Stanley Blake, had been reunited with family.

Police confirmed they had been contacted and told he had been found but said the “file was still open until police confirmed he was safe and well”.

Blake left Australia, where he had previously worked as a painter in Queensland, to come to New Zealand on February 28 before flying to Gisborne the next day. He left behind a note that read “Head to Mahia” and listed items such as a tent, shovel, and shoes, but had not been heard from since.

Amanda Blake described her brother, known as Stan, as a “very quiet” man who loved fishing and enjoyed talking about camping and hunting.

It was out of character for him to have gone so long without speaking to family. The family had been hoping he was simply in an area with no reception but were worried he could have been injured or become unwell.

Last week family members travelled from Australia to search for him.

His older brother, Rob, and brother-in-law Jamie Costa scaled rough terrain, hiking along train tracks from Mahia to Gisborne, and travelled around by car and on quadbikes looking for Blake.

A shepherd told the pair he had seen Blake at a railway tunnel on Friday. “We were less than 2km away in a different tunnel,” Rob said.