“There’s A Lot Of Viciousness” In Kaikoura

The darker side of the seaside town of Kaikoura is getting a lot of exposure of late. What with tourists getting hospitalised by marauding mobs, seals being clubbed to death and vacationing US soldiers getting robbed.

Now we hear that an immigrant couple, Ms Irvine-Boag 54, and her partner, Tony Neumann, 53 are moving out of the town because of two recent violent street assaults and an anonymous note telling them to “get out” of town.

They moved to the coastal community in 2008 but say they soon encountered hostility from the locals who treated them as outsiders.

Ms Irvine-Boag said their neighbour refused to speak to them, while pavement signs for her business were repeatedly moved.

“You can be there 40 or 50 years and you’re still not accepted,” she said.

“There’s a lot of viciousness.”

The final straw was a violent attack that left her partner needing stitches to his mouth and lip.

Read details of the assaults here in the Marlborough Express.

Ms Irvine-Boag said she could not understand why two “semi-retired” people in their 50s were targeted.

After what felt like a long, “very cold” winter, the couple put their house on the market and moved to Christchurch, vowing they would “never return to live in Kaikoura”.

The move was well timed, given that Kaikoura is gearing up for the New Years Eve celebrations. No doubt there will be an enhanced police presence on the streets this year. Read Fights mar holidays (1 January 2011)

But, we have a feeling this couple may be moving from frying pan to fire. Christchurch, which has an unsavory reputation as the murder capital of New Zealand, is still suffering from frequent earthquakes, some of which have been strong enough to cause further damage to buildings and send shoppers running for safety on Boxing Day.

Is nowhere safe in New Zealand these days?

Child Dies After Rotorua Hot Pool Plunge – updated

An eight year old child, visiting New Zealand with his family, died this evening (NZ time) after sustaining severe, 100% burns when he fell into a hot pool at the Kuirau thermal parkland in urban Rotorua.

Our heartfelt condolences go out to the boy’s family, who are understandably devastated by his death. He was later named as eight year of Toromon Toromon.

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The burning incident, which happened on Boxing Day, has only just been reported on by the New Zealand media. It has  been the topic of discussion on the Trademe forums, with one contributor saying

“this is not the first time in Rotorua (Kuirau Park) and won’t be the last unfortunately.
Why is it that internal balustrading in our homes are by law meant to be climb-proof, yet fencing around tourist places are very much climbable.

Cave Creek’s enquiry into viewing platforms around NZ resulted in a big fixing up exercise. Let’s hope this will happen now as well.

Kids will be kids. And parents can be distracted or have given warnings.”

Another thinks that Tourism New Zealand has some responsibility in this matter

“I do feel that Tourism NZ has a responsibility towards its visitors, especially since SO many have already been burned or killed in those boilings wells.”

A discussion thread on the forum Expatexposed.com has also raised the issue about the adequacy of fencing and signage at Kuirau park, which is open freely to the public.

It is thought that the child’s family do not speak English and may have been unable to understand the signage at the public park, or realise how hot the pools are. There are many mud and hot pools and in New Zealand where bathing is permitted.

It is unclear if a supervising adult was with him in the parklands at the time of his accident.

Toromon is thought to have been rescued by an older sibling but it is unclear how he was pulled out of the pool, or back over any fence he may have climbed. At later report in the Dominion Post said that the pool was one of the smaller ones, near to Rotorua Hospital.

News of the incident has reached the international media see “Boy, 8, dies with ‘skin falling from his body’ after jumping into boiling hot thermal spring“  Daily Mail, UK which attracted readers comments, such as

- Tim, Cheshire, 30/12/2010 23:26

Again?! I remember reading of a similar incident in the same area a couple of years ago and managed to find the report on the Web: “A four-year-old boy is in Rotorua Hospital after badly burning his feet in natural hot springs ” Sept 07. (Ed. Link to this story HERE)
That fence is plainly not enough – how about regular warning signs for boiling water & mud and not to enter at all?!
Completely avoidable tragedy – and no doubt the brother is also burned that dragged the latest victim out.

- HappyHarry, Newcastle, 30/12/2010 23:32

Poor soul, rest in peace little man.
The recreation manager sounds like a fool:
He doesn’t know what happened yet is accusing the boy of scaling the fence. He should keep his mouth shut until he knows the facts, and if a child can scale a fence, then the fence, and warning signs, aren’t good enough, idiot.

- RLH, Sydney Australia, 30/12/2010 22:33

We have been there as we used to live in NZ. The local Maori people cook corn cobs in that water – it’s that hot.
Perhaps the authorities there will now put measures in place ensuring that young children are properly supervised. This is an absolute tragedy and should never have happened. My heart goes out to the family concerned.

Where To Go In Tauranga On New Year’s Eve

Continuing in our series of What Kiwis Say About New Zealand, an inside look at what Kiwis really think about New Zealand, and a great chance to have a look at the country as they see it.

This one starts with a fairly simple dilemma that a lot of families are faced with – what to do as a family on NYE. You’d think the solution would be straightforward in a country that’s “so great for kids,” where “they can be kids for longer” … wouldn’t you?

This question was asked on the Trademe forum, an online community for Kiwis:

HB “Does anyone know if theres some kind of family friendly place to go on new years eve in tauranga? Like a mardigra etc. Im sooo godamm bored.. and want to take my girls out on new yrs eve!! Anywhere except the mount lol”

Depending on how well you know New Zealand some  the following answers may surprise you – especially the comments about drunk teenagers.

Drunken violence among teens ruined a family Christmas carol service in Christchurch recently and culminated  in a 15 year old being stabbed in the face. It’s not surprising that parents in other towns are feeling extremely wary of taking their children to public events at this time of year.

This NYE police are hoping that forecasted wet weather will “dampen down” known trouble spots in Whangamata, Mt Maunganui, Queenstown and Wanaka, where it is likely that liquor bans will be breached.

This year police are being careful not to refer to the temporary cells at Mt Maunganui as Alcatraz to avoid a rites of passage youth culture about the cells. They are processing centres.

Senior Sergeant John Fookes, of Queenstown, said liquor bans were a great mechanism for “keeping a lid on things”. read “Police hope wet weather will dampen trouble spots“

These are some of the answers that HB got to her question on Trademe:

AJ “Buy some fish & chips, then go to any nice beach. Maketu has a lovely beach.”

HB “ive pretty much done that everyday for 2 wks lol..my girls are 13, that would be a tad unexciting for them im afraid..”

K “yeah the mount is kind of it for organised new years round here…and ive only ever been once on a new years for about 1/2 an hour !!been here most my life! ummm ummm ummm…exciting….*blank*

S “its realy difficult to take children out without drunken yobs ruining it. got nowhwere to suggest sorry; try ringing the information centre at mount and tauruanga tomorrow; there maybe something around for the age group. good luck.

HB “yeh i dont fancy my girls around that scene at Mount as they’re way to young. And Im over sitting on a beach with just teh 3 of us, that’s getting stale lol.”

AJ “Yep @ 13, Maketu for F&C would be Lame!…Much. The Mount has cleaned up their act as far as the drunkin’ louts go. It is way more family friendly. An idea is out at papamoa Blow carts, they have lazer tag etc there now too.(trying to think of different things here).

NZ “Not last year. Was just packed out with drunken teenagers… a lot laying in the gutter… I took my kids and went with my sister and her husband as we’d heard the same – if anything, it was far worse than when I was a teenager going to the Mt on nys. Anywho… my gf and a few others are going to a wee bar/restaurant that’s open late, not in the city centre… a few drinks… some laughs… and then home at a reasonable hour or I will fall asleep.

….

AJ “I know how you feel HB, I am a mum on my own, it is hard finding things/places to take kids to on NY eve or the holidays, that are 1. Safe. 2. Family Friendly…& 3. Don’t cost a fortune(specially with teenagers!) another idea, I just thought of was…I took my miss 10+ out to Maketu, to Briars Horse Treks!…Miss 10 loved it & wants to go back! she had a great ride for her 45mins+ it cost me $25, but I got some great photo’s! (I cannot ride as I am disabled, my hips & spine are shot) but maybe you can all go together? google briarshorsetreks.co.nz

HB “Oh cool i shall google that for sure as my girls have never been on a horse ever.. I am finding it lonely as just moved to waitangi and only know 2 pple here so far lmao.. All i do all day long is bake and sit on a beach . Im looking forward to going back to tech in feb.

This blog also appears in our What Kiwis Say About NZ pages.

US Soliders Robbed In Kaikoura – Updated

Yes that’s right – Kaikoura, not Kandahar.

Kaikoura is a popular seaside town in New Zealand and a setting-off point for whale watching trips. But Kaikoura has been having a rough time of it recently what with visitors getting badly beaten up by mobs on the streets and seals being clubbed to death.

Now we hear that two American soldiers, Eli and Tonia Gerhard, lost a large amount of property when their rental car was robbed. Following the theft police used a search warrant to enter a local address and “recovered a “substantial amount” of property” according to the Kaikoura Star.

The couple had decided to take a holiday in New Zealand, away from the crime and strife of war ravaged Afghanistan where the couple had both been posted. What a bad choice New Zealand turned out to be for them. From the Marlborough Express:

They had hoped to leave behind the air of crime and mistrust of Afghanistan and enjoy what should have been a relaxing holiday in a country which is generally considered a safe haven.

“This sort of thing does nothing for tourism.”

It doesn’t do much for Eli and Tonya either, who probably chose New Zealand because its supposed to be a safer place to visit than Afghanistan.

Constable Dean Schroder of Kaikoura agrees.

“This is a senseless targeting of tourists in Kaikoura. It does nothing for our image. The damage this sort of crime does to our region far outweighs the value of the property stolen.”…

Well has been a lot of senseless targeting of tourists in Kaikoura recently, all that’s happened this time is that international visitors are the targets and that’s likely to draw the wrong sort of world attention to New Zealand’s image.

…Items stolen included a small laptop, a Toshiba notebook, a fisheye lens for their Canon camera, a video camera and a couple of hard drives with all their holiday photos as well as all Mr Gerhard’s footage of Afghanistan – he has a helmet mounted camera with which he has recorded many of his missions.

“There is some pretty explicit s**t in there – almost three hours of mission videos,” he says. “But I doubt they will even look at it to realise – they will probably just delete everything.” read the full report here

According to another report a

“man aged 19 and a woman aged 23 are due to appear in the Kaikoura District Court on January 21 in relation to the theft.

Police were called to the Presbyterian Church on Deal St over the weekend after windows in the church were found broken. Mr Schroder believed the breakages were as a result of stone throwing and occurred on Thursday or Friday night last week. An amount of steel was stolen from the railway yard on Edmund Ave on Thursday night.

A pallet full of plates, often used to weight craypots down, and some cut-up railway iron was stolen.” read the full report here

The message here, as always is when in New Zealand never leave anything unattended in your car or camper van that you don’t want to lose.

Just how much of the couple’s property has been recovered isn’t clear but we hope they manage get it all back. Next time they have a much needed furlough  we also hope they chose somewhere more secure to vacation than New Zealand, where it seems a great many tourists are falling victim to crime recently.

Other stories you may be interested in:-

Suffolk couple put emigration plans on hold after experiencing NZ’s crime:

“Today’s Herald is reporting on British couple Dean and Tabitha Forbes who lost most of their possessions whilst on a pre-emigration trip to Auckland, New Zealand…”

British Migrants Robbed:

“”An English family who came to New Zealand to make a fresh start were left with only the clothes on their backs when their motel was burgled two days after they arrived.

Dawn and Conrad Tutin and their children Stephanie, 14, and Kiel, 12, arrived from Nottingham a week ago to begin a new life in Auckland, where Mr Tutin will work for Fisher & Paykel…””

More British tourists robbed, no gold for New Plymouth:

“Earlier today we wrote about honeymooning couple Simon and Sabine Greenslade whose campervan was robbed of outside of Auckland Zoo, losing most of their holiday and honeymooning photographs amongst other possessions.

We’ve also heard about another young British couple, Jake Graham and Jess Kelly,whose campervan was also broken into and who lost almost everything they owned in New Plymouth yesterday afternoon…”

Other stories you may find interesting

Honeymoon couple lose precious photos, no ‘gold medal’ in Auckland

US rowing team member  robbed, world rowing championships 2010 in Queenstown

Czech Tourist, Jan Fakotor, Stabbed In Motueka

English tourist mugged in Gisborne

Chilean tourist punched, robbed in Nelson

A group of students that were beaten and robbed whilst on a treasure hunt at the Hundertwasser toilets in Kawakawa, Northland

A series of random, unprovoked attacks in Queenstown

Previous robbery of British tourists at Kerosene Creek

Tourists robbed at Kerosene Creek

Three French tourists beaten and robbed in their campervan in Mangamuka, Northland - police have yet to resolve this crime

A family of Swiss tourists that were assaulted and racially abused in Kaitaia, Northland

Anke Kuballa and Marc Busch from Germany who were robbed in Whangarei, Northland

A family of five robbed at the roadside whilst camping in their van at Oturere Stream, 25km south of Turangi

Two German tourists attacked in Paihia, Northland

Two American tourists were robbed at Shipwreck Bay in Northland whilst sandboarding

Asian woman, (probably Japanese) age 22, raped in her room by 2 teenagers in a home invasion in Opotiki, Northland

Three Chinese tourists attacked and robbed at Te paki, 90 Mile Beach, Northland, by two men they’d stopped to help

French tourist Anthony Cressend, beaten and robbed at campsite in Ahipara, Northland

Two Australian tourists robbed at knifepoint for their holiday money in Te Puke, SE of Tauranga.

Japanese tourist age 23 (female) kidnapped, robbed and assaulted in Rotorua by four men

French tourist (male) raped at gunpoint near Opotiki,

American peace corp twins Adam and Alex Rahmlow, 21 were robbed of all their possessions by a man they tried to help in Amberley, Christchurch.

Dutch couple raped and robbed on a campsite in Tuatapere, NW of Invercargill, whilst on their honeymoon. (Dutch govt. issued a travel warning about NZ)

Two Koreans were attacked and robbed of their possession which included a laptop computer by a man claiming to be a gang member in Blenheim.

British tourist worker sexually assaulted near Hururu Falls, Northland when she was dragged off a walking track.

Canadian tourist Jeremie Kawerninski, kidnapped, assaulted and robbed in Lower Hutt, Wellington

Dutch couple robbed and sexually attacked Haruru Falls, Northland whilst on honeymoon.

Two British women robbed and raped in their campervan at Tokomaru Bay, north of Gisborne.

Japanese tourist subjected to a prolonged and brutal sex attack in a communal area of a backpacker’s hostel in Turangi, Taupo.

Scottish woman Karen Aim brutally murdered by a youth in Taupo.

German woman Birgit Brauer murdered near New Plymouth.

Korean man Jae Hyeon Kim decapitated with a spade by white supremacist.

Japanese tourist robbed at gunpoint in Oamaru.

Irish cycle tourist Paul Mack bashed, robbed and urinated on throughout his NZ tour.

6 English and Danish tourists attacked and stabbed in Cashel Mall, Christchurch for having “foreign accents.”

Irish man Robby O’Brien beaten up in Westport.

Russian couple Denis Khotchenko and Lera Nesterova beaten and robbed in Milford, Auckland

English woman knifed and sexually assaulted in a toilet block at an A1 motor camp in Kaikoura

American campers Patrick Dykstra and Kelsey McGinley beaten and robbed at Whangarei Falls, Northland.

Australian tourist sexually assaulted on a street in broad daylight in Nelson.

Australian tourist subjected to a sex attack by Maia Crawford Rongonui whilst walking home to a backpackers in Christchurch.

Canadian tourist left with a fractured skull outside Silver Fern backpackers in Taupo.

Dutch tourist beaten and robbed at Lake Rotorua.

British man Paul Speakman and his young son beaten and robbed in a campervan at Athenree Gorge, Katikati.

Chinese woman attacked for speaking Chinese on a train approaching Petone.

Scottish visitor Stuart Martin who was left in a coma and with a boot print on his face after a street bashing in Taradale, Christchurch.

Kaikoura Street Attack – Further Details Emerge

The Press has published more information about the recent random street attack in the seaside town of Kaikoura, famous for its sea life watching tours and fast developing an unsavory reputation for thuggish acts of violence.

A group of holiday makers were walking back from town to the Big Ten holiday park earlier this week when they were attacked.

One of the victims was badly bitten on the face by another woman and her brother suffered a broken jaw and arm in the second bashing in Kaikoura in six weeks. The man’s partner spoke to the paper saying not enough was being done to stop random violence in the town and asked “Is it going to take someone to die before something is done?”

She went on to state that the attack, which happened just after midnight and that it

 had been “a random, violent ambush” by at least two carloads of people…”There were at least 15 of them, and they all started bashing them.

“Everyone got split up because it was dark and they were trying to run away … one of our friends got his clothes ripped off him, and his phone and wallet stolen.”

When her partner’s sister tried to take a picture of the cars, a woman leapt out of a car and “bit her in the face”.

One of the friends lay unconscious on the footpath for about 10 minutes.

“We thought he was dead. All you have to do is hit the ground wrong.”

The woman asked not to be named for fear of retribution.

“There are still heaps of them out there who want revenge for some of their mates getting arrested.

“They are scaring everyone.” read the full story here

In a previous attack in November a mob of up to 30 people set upon a group of men up from Christchurch on a fishing trip, beating them and kidnapping one.

At the time Kaikoura’s mayor, Winston Gray, said “the incident was not the first against visitors and the community needed to help stamp out violence. He was disappointed so many people were involved in the incident. 

“There must have been some amongst them that thought this is not right. Where were they – were they all so alcohol or drug-affected that reasoned judgment had totally gone out the window? Banter between groups of males is one thing; these actions, however, cannot be condoned.

These young men need to realise that they actually do not own this town.””

For background read:

Kaikoura’s mobs – street violence erupts again

Five arrested in Kaikoura Mob Attack

Seals clubbed to death on Kaikoura coast 6 December  2010 – “Twenty-three seals, including eight newborn pups, were clubbed to death in a “callous and cowardly” attack at the Ohau Point colony on the Kaikoura coast…”