West Coast beekeeper Roy Arbon. Photo: Supplied
Search teams have spent more than 750 search hours looking for missing West Coast beekeeper Roy Arbon.
Arbon, 75, has been missing since he set out on a walk up Mt Davy to Mt Sewell near Greymouth a week ago.
A large search operation involving police search and rescue teams, LANDSAR volunteers from Greymouth and surrounding areas and a Search and Rescue dog, has so far failed to locate him.
Arborn left on 23 July, leaving behind a handwritten note.
"Gone for walk. Mt Davy to Mt Sewell. Back tonight or tomorrow morning," the note read.
After finding the note the following day, a concerned neighbour raised the alarm and since then, rescuers have been combing every track Arbon could have taken.
Police receive a lead
On Monday, the rescue team got a lead after polling on Arbon's phone pinpointed his last position. It showed that at 2.39pm on 24 July, Arbon was in an open area, roughly 1km north of Sewell Peak's repeater and 2km south of Mount Davy, heading south.
That appears to be the last time his phone was active.
Senior Sergeant Mark Kirkwood said 12 minutes after the phone pinged a police helicopter flew over the exact location and took a video of the search area.
"When we reviewed the footage, we couldn't find any sign of Mr Arbon in it," Senior Sergeant Kirkwood said.
"We know his phone was absolutely in that area, and we know the polling is right - you get perfect reception up there because you're right by the repeater."
Kirkwood said the area was a good distance from the cover of bush, and would've been a struggle for him to walk that far that fast.
"We have spoken to two people who walked the same route in the same direction, and they didn't see him," he said.
"It's really odd."
On Tuesday, police found Arbon's bicycle on a nearby trail Rewanui Road.
Roy Arbon pictured riding from Runanga to the Mt Davy area on 23 July 2025. Photo: Supplied / NZ Police
Kirkwood said more than 750 search hours have been spent by the ground teams alone.
"The search team is pretty flat, we don't like not being able to return someone home," he said.
"We've had 18 people in an extended line looking for anything that will lead us to him, but there's been nothing, it's unusual."
He said there's been no definitive footprints, no discarded items and no scent to track.
Kirkwood is hoping a review of the search might bring up new leads.
"We'll be looking at the teleco [telecommunications] data, the information that was called in by the public, where teams searched and what they found," he said.
"We're looking at anything that will give us a lead."
He said if there are no new leads in the coming weeks, search teams will be back out there with specialist search dogs.
"We want to bring Mr Arbon home and are doing everything we can to make that happen... We're not giving up."
Police continue to ask the public to report any information regarding Roy or his whereabouts via our 105 service, referencing file number 250725/2139.
West Coast beekeeper Roy Arbon. Photo: Supplied
Erebus and Cave Creek rescuer
Arbon worked for the Antarctic division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research when Air New Zealand Flight 901 crashed into Mt Erebus in 1979.
In an interview with NZ History, he described the dangerous recovery work: "We were working on a glacier… probing for crevasses with an ice axe. One thing that stayed with me is the smell of unburnt aviation fuel."
He also helped erect a memorial cross on the crash site amid gale-force winds so strong the helicopter could not be shut down.
"I was asked to help erect a memorial cross on the site. This was done in a gale-force wind so bad the helicopter could not shut down. I believe this was because the wind was blowing so hard, they wouldn't be able to get the machine started without damage to the main rotors."
In 1995, Arbon also assisted in recovering the bodies of 14 people who died when a viewing platform collapsed at Cave Creek.
Years later, Arbon was caught up in an international drug smuggling scam.
He was detained in Australia after unknowingly transporting a suitcase from Brazil that contained more than 2kg of cocaine.
He was later acquitted at trial in Western Australia. His ordeal was featured in the documentary The Scam.
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