A person involved in the search for a missing man and his three children near the small coastal community Marokopa in Waikato says some items found in the search have been handed to police.
Police have since said, however, “no items of significance have been located”.
The search for Tom Phillips, eight-year-old Jayda, six-year-old Maverick and five-year-old Ember entered its fifth day on Friday.
They were last seen at a farm in Marokopa, about two hours drive from Hamilton, on Saturday afternoon. Phillips' vehicle was then found at the beach in Kiritehere late Sunday, and the family was told on Monday morning.
But weather conditions have hampered search efforts, which on Thursday focussed on the water, with sea-based searches by the Raglan and Taranaki Surf Lifesaving squads.
The agency's Allan Mundy says those items have been passed to police to decide if it is of interest.
Surf Lifesaving's national search and rescue manager Allan Mundy on Friday told Breakfast they were using an inflatable rescue boat with three crew, a safety boat offshore and jet skis to search around the water.
He added that crew were also swimming up to caves, looking for the missing people or anything linked to them.
"We cover a lot of area, but really thoroughly," Mundy said.
"At this stage we've found some items but we've passed those all on to police and it's up to them to decide whether it's of interest.
"Pretty much anything that's not sea life, we will collect, we'll mark and then we pass that on up the chain."
SHARE ME