Parents' anguish turns to joy

By SCOTT INGLIS

One moment Siddharth Doshi and Vidhi Trivedi were playfully running ahead of their mothers on a snaking, gravel track in the Hunua Ranges.

Then, they vanished.

Realising the children were lost, their mothers began frantically searching. Two hours later on Sunday night, as darkness fell over the rugged bush in South Auckland, the police were called.

That night, the 6-year-old girl, Vidhi, and the 5-year-old boy, Siddharth, curled up on the bush floor, holding their hands under their sweaters to keep them warm. They could hear searchers call their names but were too tired to cry out.

Hundreds of metres away, their families, who migrated from India two years ago, wept and prayed.

Their prayers were answered yesterday afternoon when, seemingly against the odds, police found the children safe and sound - 21 hours after they became lost.

The Doshi and Trivedi extended families, who are close friends, had stopped at the Hunua Ranges on Sunday about 5.30 pm on their way back from a day trip to Hamilton Gardens.

They walked along the bush tracks by the Hunua Falls, admiring the rugged beauty of the ranges.

Most of them returned to the carpark, but Siddharth and Vidhi continued walking with their mothers, Jayshree Doshi and Varsha Trivedi.

Within a few hundred metres of the carpark, about 7 pm, the youngsters disappeared.

The families spent two desperate hours searching before calling for help. Police then searched into the cold and rainy night, but without success.

At daylight yesterday, more than 120 police and volunteers from tramping clubs turned up dozens at a time, offering to help look for the pair.

They began combing a 1km radius around the carpark, in light, morning drizzle.

At the same time, the families were holed up the dining room of the Kokako Lodge, desperately waiting for news.

Vidhi's mother, Varsha, vowed not to eat or drink until her daughter was found. The curtains were drawn; no one felt like eating or sleeping.

Her father, Rajesh, emerged from the room with puffy eyes: "The children just disappeared. They were playing and they just disappeared."

He told of desperately looking for the children. "I was just wandering like a madman. I was screaming and shouting - just out of control. I didn't know what to do."

Yesterday, the families were constantly thinking about what might have happened. Were they just lost, or were they hurt as well? Had they fallen into a hole or down a bank? Had they been abducted? Were they even alive?

Searchers returned to a lunch of ham and cheese rolls. Worries had set in. One said:"It's quite hairy up there because the ground's quite loose ... I'm a bit concerned now. I thought we'd have found them by this stage."

Police formally interviewed the families and took them along tracks beside the Hunua Falls to recap what had happened.

But things became confused when the mothers gave conflicting accounts of exactly what track the children disappeared from.

By 2.30 pm, searchers seriously considered the possibility that the children were lying dead in the Wairoa River.

The Devonport-based Navy Dive Squad was called in and searched the dirty, brown river, starting with the large pool beneath the falls.

Two at a time, they scoured the pool floor, which is dotted with deep holes.

While they were doing that, at 4.10 pm, the radio at the temporary search headquarters at Kokako Lodge crackled with excited voices: the youngsters had been found alive and well in a deep gully.

A 14-strong search group had been calling out their names and got a reply. It took 15 minutes to get to the children, who were sitting, chatting, under a tall tree.

Back at Kokako Lodge, the families - who came to Auckland from Bombay - cried in relief and hugged each other.

Siddharth's father, Bharat Doshi, who had feared the worst, held up his hands: "I couldn't believe it. I was hopeless. I had told my family it was hopeless - I'd lost my son."

Mr Trivedi simply said: "It's a miracle."

Searchers brought out Vidhi first, handing the tiny girl into the arms of her father, who ran his hands through her unkempt hair and kissed her cheek.

He asked how she was. She replied: "Good."

About 100 people gathered in the falls carpark clapped.

Shortly afterwards, Siddharth walked out with more searchers into the arms of his beaming father.

When his father asked him how he was, Siddharth casually replied: "Fine."