Mr Wills said yesterday that with searchers having gone over 12ha of the Trelinnoe gardens several times, the hunt in improved weather spread further afield yesterday, concentrating on roadsides as far away as the Napier-Taupo highway - "both north and south".
Among those who joined yesterday's search was Mr Wills' aerial spreading contractor, Bruce Peterson, of Aerospread, and commercial helicopter pilot Rick Graham, who conducted voluntary searches from the air, and another of Mr Wills' sons, Matt, who had left his dairying in Canterbury so he could help.
"I'm very humbled," said Mr Wills, who was still mystified by the inability to find even the 30cm-high, 5-litre clear plastic jug Mrs Wills had to feed the chickens, which were in a roost barely 50 metres from the homestead.
Mr Wills said: "The only bit of the gardens we haven't seen is the bottoms of the six lakes.
"What we do know, from everything we've considered, that she is either very close, or somehow has managed to make her way far away," he said.
"It is Day 4. But miracles can happen, so we are still hopeful.
"We really do appeal to anybody who thinks they may have seen her, anywhere," Mr Wills said.
