Couple missing for more than a week make contact

A young couple who had been missing for more than a week have made contact. 

Waikato police put out a public plea for information about their whereabouts this afternoon as they hadn't been seen since they said goodbye to relatives in the Bay of Plenty over a week ago. 

Detective Sergeant Mata John of the Ngaruawahia CIB said 20-year-old Te Arawa Karaitiana and his partner, 27-year-old Carli Pugh, were last seen when they left Carli's grandfather's Whakatane home on  November 4. 

But Te Arawa's mother Benedine, of Ngaruawahia, said he made contact.

"They were just doing some things they wanted to do and time got a way from them," she said. 

"They neglected to let me know but he's fine." 

She feared for the couple's safety but is now "pleased" and "relieved". 

John said the couple had left Whakatane in a mauve coloured Toyota RAV4 vehicle and they were understood to be heading back to their New Windsor, Auckland home but they never arrived.

- © Fairfax NZ News