An American accused of kidnapping his son has been found with the boy on Niue, a tiny island in the South Pacific, 5,500 miles from home.

Nine-year-old Billy Hanson, of Seattle, was reported missing by his mother in September when he failed to return from a visit to his father. An international search was launched, with authorities focusing on finding a yacht belonging to Jeffrey Hanson, a skilled sailor with experience voyaging around Mexico and the South Pacific.

Investigators tracked down the pair to Niue, a coral atoll known by its 1,600 inhabitants as The Rock, 1,500 miles north-east of New Zealand.

Members of the island’s 15-member police force arrested Jeffrey Hanson on 29 October, the FBI said, adding that he had since been deported to the US where he would be charged with international parental kidnapping.

While Jeffrey Hanson left Niue last week with a police escort, his son remained on the island for a further four days while arrangements were made for him to return to his mother.

The editor of the Niue Star newspaper said locals had rallied around to look after the boy, who seemed to be treating his time in the South Pacific as an adventure. “I saw him at a barbecue on Friday and he did not look stressed,” Michael Jackson said. “He had a Niue T-shirt on and was enjoying himself.”

He said the child had become something of a celebrity during his time on the island. “When I was at the petrol station he came past and people were whispering: ‘There’s the boy who was kidnapped’,” Jackson said. “It’s all been quite exciting for us.”