The Bay of Island's community of Haruru Falls is celebrating after a mammoth organised effort finally tracked down a dog that was missing for five days.
Around 15 residents banded together to search for 11-year-old King who went missing on August 10. Searchers clambered through thick bush, mangroves and mud to find him, eventually being rescued by kayak.
Haruru Falls resident Georgia Todd helped organise the mammoth search effort, telling Breakfast she felt "like I couldn't just sit there and do nothing” after reading that the dog had been missing for five days.
"I asked the owner if she'd talked to anyone over on the Kerikeri noticeboard and she hadn't had time. So, I put something up and there was over 200 responses on that plea for help."
She said the dog's owner, Sam, had been out looking by herself for four days prior to asking the community for assistance.
"We as a community just all pitched in. There never should be any animal that should be left to die alone in that state, as long as we can do something about it, we should."
Todd said many people volunteered drone equipment, which was unable to penetrate the dense bush and mangroves, prompting her to get in touch with Coastguard and eventually Land Search and Rescue.
"They sent out some ex-military trackers to the area and this was in the afternoon, it was like in a movie."
She said King was found "camouflaged" in an area that had already been searched previously and was brought back to a meeting spot where he was greeted to a hero's welcome.
"He was very weak, very tired, but alive," she said.
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