Couple missing on canoe trip
PA Auckland Light aircraft will be used today in a search by relatives for a married couple missing on an outrigger canoe between Auckland and Tonga. The couple, Mr Douglas Brown, aged 64, and his wife, Valerie, aged 38, of Te Puru, were due at Tonga a week ago. A note found this week at Great Barrier Island says: “My dear kids, I want you to know I love you so. Doug and I are together — not afraid to die. I’m sorry, from Vai and Doug.” Although no official search will be started for the couple, Mr Brown’s son, Doug, said the family would not let the mystery surrounding the note rest.
“We have great faith in our father," Mr Brown said from Te Puru last evening. “He has been across the Pacific four times and across the Tasman once." He said that two aircraft would be used to search north and south of the Hauraki Gulf. The nine-metre outrigger canoe Tasman Gull was carrying enough food and water for a month at sea. The Browns left Auckland on May 5. The delay in the couple's reaching Tonga and the finding of the note written on the back of a cheque book in a lunch box from the outrigger was described by relatives as a mystery. The police said that the chances of finding the couple were remote.
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Press, 31 May 1985, Page 1
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233Couple missing on canoe trip Press, 31 May 1985, Page 1
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