Whānau of tour guide on Whakaari/White Island want to fall apart but try to stay strong with vigil
Tuesday, 10 December 2019
The whānau of a man still missing on White Island/Whakaari want to 'fall apart' but know that their only option is to 'stay strong'.
Tipene Maangi, 23, is one of two White Island Tours staff feared dead after Monday's eruption.
On Tuesday, his Aunties told 1 NEWS they were scared for their nephew who would turn 24 in January.
Tip, as he is known, was 'the entertainer' and a very 'confident and outspoken young man'.
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They just wanted him back home with his whānau: 'We love you, Tip … we're waiting fo you to pop up from behind one of those rocks,' said the Aunties.
'We are scared, we are emotional, some of us do want to fall apart, but it's not really an option we've got to stay strong,' they said.
Earlier, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern made it clear all current efforts by police and emergency services on the island are based on recovering bodies.
They do not believe there is any chance of survivors still being on the island.
Police say advice from GeoNet suggests the island is too unsafe to go on to as it could erupt again.
A navy vessel was assessing the area by drone on Tuesday morning to determine when recovery teams could land.
Maangi's whānau stood vigil at Whakatāne wharf on Tuesday morning, embracing.
They then made their way to Mānuka Tūtahi Marae, gathering at the wharenui to say karakia.
A whānau member, who declined to give her name, said Maangi had only been in the job a few months.
She said he loved his job and although news was dire, whānau were 'holding out hope'.
Forty-seven people were on Whakaari/White Island when it erupted at 2.11pm on Monday, police said.
Waikato police superintendent Bruce Bird said five people were confirmed dead, while 31 were still in hospital and three had been discharged. The remaining eight people on the island were still unaccounted for.
By Tuesday night, police confirm a sixth person, who was being treated in Middlemore hospital, had died.
Rescue helicopters, the police Eagle helicopter, and New Zealand Defence Force aircraft had already undertaken multiple reconnaissance flights over the island since the eruption, and would send out more aerial flights throughout Tuesday.
Ardern said a pilot had explored the volcano and 'physically moved around the island rather than just an aerial survey and did so for some time, and brought back that report that unfortunately there was no sign of life'.
White Island Tours chairman Paul Quinn told TVNZ's Breakfast that two of his staff were among the missing.