Missing Tauranga man survives by foraging from bush

James Vachre. Photo/supplied

A Tauranga man who went missing for a week has been found safe and well after living off the land and foraging for food in the Kaimai Range.

James Vachre, 22, was last seen at his Devonport Rd flat on the afternoon of November 2.

On Monday, Tauranga Search and Rescue members found Mr Vachre in a hut in the ranges safe and well.

Mother Jude Vachre said she and her husband David were "absolutely exhausted" but elated yesterday after having been reunited with their son.

"You are just living off adrenaline then suddenly your body realises that it's all its been living off, but that's okay.

"For us, no one, none of us gave up."

The Vachres launched a public appeal to help track down James and set up a Facebook page "Bring James Vachre Home".

In less than 48 hours the page had 9000 followers and 900 likes.

"We were quite blown away by the instant hits we had," Mrs Vachre said.

"We linked all the links on James we had, the police and news posts.

"What happened was one of the guys, who had gone in to the bush to hunt [last weekend], he was going through his Facebook at smoko time the next day at work when he saw the link to our Facebook page. He saw that and thought 'Oh my God, I spent the night with this guy at the hut'," Mrs Vachre said.

"So he left a message on our page and he then made contact with Tauranga police and then I made personal contact with him. We confirmed that James was one and the same as the man he found at the hut. Then the police said they were going to be deploying a search and rescue team so we were hopeful James was in fact still going to be in the area where he was.

"Thankfully, he was still there."

James was found well enough to walk out with search and rescue members but was "a bit lighter", said Mrs Vachre who also spoke on behalf of her son.

"He's thanked his dad and television shows like 'how to survive in the bush' ... he was able to identify things that he could feed off in the bush and how to set up a little camp.

"He's said his survival skills kicked in and he learned what it was like to spend nights in the bush when the weather changes."

It remained unclear how James ended up in the bush but the delivery driver usually went for regular walks around Tauranga's estuaries and had favourite spots at McLaren's Falls, Poripori River and Yatton Park.

When he went missing, he left his mobile phone and scooter behind at his flat and failed to show for dinner at his parents' home that evening.

"He just said that he didn't really think about ... where he would be going, but that's where he ended up," Mrs Vachre said.

"He didn't have a plan."

Mrs Vachre said the family were grateful for the overwhelming support they received during James' disappearance.

"The power of people talking, it just gets right out there," she said.