Police search and rescue teams have converged on a an area of bush at a West Auckland beach after an item that could be linked to a missing French teenager was found there.
Eloi Jean Rolland, 18, came to Auckland as part of a student exchange programme in September.
He was staying with a host family in Birkenhead on the North Shore and failed to return home on March 6.
Police later confirmed the last sighting of Rolland was the next morning.
Police confirmed today that a T-shirt was found in an area of bush at Karekare last weekend.
"It is being forensically tested and police are keeping an open mind as to whether it may be linked to the search for Eloi Rolland," said Detective Senior Sergeant Callum McNeil.
"Search and rescue personnel have returned to the area to see if there are any other items of interest."
Meanwhile, Rolland's family have made a desperate plea to their own authorities for help.
"We would like there to be collaboration between the French police and the New Zealand police," his sister Aurore told BFMTV.com
"The latter asked for it but with the coronavirus crisis, France refused.
"We understand that there is a health crisis, but we would just like the French police to question us - they may have relevant questions that we have not thought of.
"We must do our utmost so that the search continues."
His family in France are devastated that they cannot travel to New Zealand to search for him themselves.
It is not known what he did the night before he left Britomart.
His cellphone stopped transmitting shortly after 9am in the middle of the road in an area he had visited previously with friends.
Police searched the area but there was no sign of the teenager.
Officers even asked the owners of vacant homes in the area to check whether Rolland was there.
Segolene told Le Parisian that the Rolland family had many questions about the strange disappearance and continuously went over different scenarios about what could have happened.
Rolland had a "passion" for hiking and they wondered if he had an accident out on a track.
Tararua District residents, including Mayor Tracey Collis marched to protest against the proposed toll on Te Ahu a Turanga Manawatu-Tararua Highway. Video / Hawkes Bay Today