Dunedin hunter Murray Edge has been missing since last Sunday. His anxious wife, Marilyn, speaks from the heart to John Lewis about the man she first met when they were children at primary school.
If there's one thing that will bring Murray Edge out of the bush and home safely, it's this simple threat from his wife: Come home or I'll cut your precious tree down.
Marilyn Edge said they fought regularly about a small tree growing outside their kitchen window, blocking the view of their street.
''I wanted to cut it down, but he always said: 'No, over my dead body'.
''So I'm sending the message out there - `Come home or I'll cut it down'.
''If he is still alive, he will say: 'I'm coming back before Marilyn cuts that damn tree down'.''
Mrs Edge said verbalising that particular threat was her last-ditch attempt at drawing her husband home to safety.
Mr Edge (64) has been missing since 8.30pm on Sunday, after he became separated from the friend with whom he was out night-hunting on a farm about 40 minutes' drive inland from Timaru.
Hopes for his safe return are fading.
Mrs Edge was with family yesterday, reminiscing about life with her husband.
She said the pair had met when they were children at Fairlie Primary School.
''Murray remembers the day I walked in. He patted the seat next to him and said: 'Come and sit by me'.
''He could even remember what I was wearing. He said I was wearing a navy cardigan with red stripes.
''I don't remember what I was wearing on my first day at school, but I remember that cardigan.''
On her 13th birthday, she opened her school desk and and found a birthday card from him.
''That was the start of a somewhat different relationship for us.
''I always just thought he was an obnoxious farm boy that never used to say boo.''
The two became close, but were separated a year later when Mrs Edge's family moved to Nelson.
The pair kept in touch, but it wasn't until she was 19 that they met again - she was studying at teachers' college in Christchurch and he was working as a shepherd on a Canterbury sheep station.
''He invited me to a party, and I actually said to him that night: `I'm going to marry you'.
''We got married just after we were both 21.''
Several years later, son Garrick and daughter Jo (now Mrs Renton) came along. After that, the couple took in six foster children.
''Murray was not that keen to take them on for a start, but there was a need,'' Mrs Edge said.
''He's very gruff. He had a big heart and ... he didn't want people to think he was soft or anything like that.
''But he was as soft as butter in the middle and he adored those kids, and they still adore him.
''For them, he was probably the first positive male role model they'd had.''
Mrs Renton said her father was very protective of his family.
''He was a tall, imposing man with a presence about him.
''He always seemed to be cleaning his gun when I brought boyfriends home to visit.''
Mr Edge spent many years working on Canterbury and Otago sheep stations as head shepherd, including Gladbrook Station in Middlemarch and Mt Allan Station in the Taieri Gorge.
Mrs Edge said he had a strong work ethic and was an ''extremely capable'' man who could turn his ''dinner plate-sized hands'' to just about anything.
In recent years, he had been working as a supervisor at the Green Island and Mosgiel wastewater treatment plants, but on the side, he would help lifestyle block farmers with fencing, shearing and other farming work.
''He never stops working. He's just busy, busy, busy all the time.
''The problem is, every time he goes out and works for somebody, they end up as another friend.
''He'd be on the phone for at least three hours every night, talking to people.
''I don't think he ever realised just how many people, friends, he had picked up along the way.''
Apart from a love of travel, hunting was Mr Edge's main hobby.
He used to go bush almost every second weekend, Mrs Edge said.
''When we were younger, he told me lots of stories about his hunting trips, and I think every time he went hunting, I was always mentally prepared for bad news, because it is a dangerous occupation.''
His friends told her, after the fact, that once during a hunting trip, Mr Edge got stuck on a bluff and had to hold on to a bush with his teeth while he changed hand holds on the rocks so he could climb to safety.
''That's hardcore.
''He was stubborn and determined. This is why if he was injured - I don't care how badly injured he would have been - he would have crawled out of there.
''He was extremely sure-footed and very competitive. It was always a badge of honour that when he went hunting, he could outrun the young ones.''
Canterbury Rural Area commander Inspector Dave Gaskin said the search was continuing but had been scaled back.
''We've still got a reasonably open mind. We're still hopeful that we will locate Murray, but obviously as the time goes, the prognosis becomes less and less positive.''
While the area was quite small, he said the search had been challenging because the area was covered in low scrub and vegetation, and Mr Edge was wearing camouflage-pattern clothing.
Insp Gaskin said there were also many steep gorge-type creeks and sinkholes in the area.
One of the searchers had fallen into one of the sinkholes, but fortunately had been retrieved without injury, he said.
Police were now considering the possibility Mr Edge might have met a similar fate.
''[Sinkholes] are all over the place, so it is something we've got to consider,'' he said.
