Ōtorohanga mayor Max Baxter is urging Thomas Phillips to bring his children home and hand himself in.
Thomas Phillips, left, and his three children. Photo: Supplied / NZ Police
It has been six months since Phillips took his three young children back into the bush, after sparking a massive manhunt the first time they disappeared last year.
Baxter said the entire community of Aotearoa was concerned "wondering why, how" about
when the family might return or be found.
Max Baxter Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook
He said not only was their mother worried but the children's grandparents were also upset as was the local community. The police were doing their best under the circumstances, he said.
Earlier this week the children's mother issued an appeal to her ex-husband through the police asking him to bring the children back.
Baxter has not spoken to the wider family but believed they would be very worried and feeling hurt and in pain.
During the first occasion "a massive undertaking" went into trying to find them with fears they had all drowned.
There were air and land searches, also using drones and teams of people.
"The reality was that Thomas had gone inland with the children. He'd gone bush for a couple of weeks and then turned up at home."
Phillips has a home in Ōtorohanga.
Baxter said although Phillips had since been charged with wasting police time it was a small charge in the context of the children being missing for six months.
He told Afternoons people in the local community and the country were experiencing "a whole range of emotions ... asking why."
He was among those convinced that Phillips must be receiving some help.
It was "incredibly challenging" to narrow down a search area because the area of bush was so large.
Any information would be helpful to police so that they could narrow down the search area.
Last time the weather was starting to move into spring but this time it was winter and the area had seen rain for the last 10 days.
Otorohanga mayor pleads for Phillips children to be returned
While police believed Ember, Jayda and Maverick were safe it was concerning that the children who are all under 10 had been missing for so long, Baxter said.
"I think the children just by default are pretty hardy children anyway and I think Thomas is a very caring father ... so let's just hope that resource, that resilience that the children showed on the first time has stayed true in this case and they're still very stoic and looking after each other and themselves."
He concluded with an appeal to Thomas Phillips: "Six months is a heckuva long time, a lot of people are very concerned. Come forward now, I don't think there's anything to gain from being in the bush further with the children or being isolated for this length of time. ... the concern is for the welfare of the children."