The Taylorville teenager who has been missing for close to a week is believed to be safe and sound in Queenstown, after posting a message to his step-mother on Facebook this morning.
Liam Stirling was put on the bus at Haast last Wednesday to travel to his father in Greymouthafter staying with a Child, Youth and Family (CYF) caregiver. When the bus stopped at Paringa about 3pm, Liam hopped off and failed to return.
After mounting concerns yesterday, West Coast police area commander Inspector John Canning said they now believed Liam was ``safe''.
"However, I cannot confirm this until we have tapped him on the shoulder.''
The teenager messaged his mother on Facebook just before 10am today, saying, "I'm all goods'' (sic).
Mr Canning confirmed that Liam had been "tapping away'' on a computer and police were attempting to track him down through the IP address of the computer used.
"As yet we have not managed to find out where he is and we cannot confirm this, obviously, until we have made contact with him.''
Police in Otago had CCTV footage of the teenager and "he looked well in that''.
Police believe he left the bus and headed south toward Dunedin, where he has family.
A CYF spokeswoman confirmed they were looking into how it was handled.
CYF put Liam on the bus to return him to his father after spending a couple of nights with a caregiver.
The spokeswoman said he was not subject to any supervisory or detention arrangements and he had agreed to return to Greymouth.
