A fishing vessel has reached seven people adrift on a dinghy which has come from a missing Kiribati ferry, Radio New Zealand reports.
The ferry, the MV Butiraoi, left Nonouti Island with about 50 passengers on 18 January for what was supposed to have been a routine two-day trip to the capital, South Tarawa.
The Royal New Zealand Air Force located the five-metre dinghy about 300 kilometres south-east of Nauru this morning.
Supplies including water, food and a radio were dropped and a fishing vessel was diverted to pick up the people on the dinghy.
The operations manager at the Rescue Co-ordination Centre, Paul Craven, said the people on the dinghy were relieved to be found.
He said the air force was expanding its search for the missing ferry out from where the dinghy was located.