Inquiry closes campsite
Council looking into conduct complaint against facility manager.
Acampground in a popular tourist spot has been closed during the peak summer holiday season while council officials investigate a complaint over the alleged conduct of its manager.
A visitor to the campground has made a complaint about Matamata Aerodrome campsite manager Bevan Haimona.
Matamata-Piako District Council mayor Jan Barnes confirmed the council had closed the campsite while the investigation is under way.
“We take this as a very serious matter,” she told the Herald on Sunday. “It’s an employment issue, and we’re under way with dealing with the complaint. We are very concerned.”
She said the campsite was “closed to the general public because of issues raised by a customer that are being investigated”.
Matamata in the rural Waikato is home to the Hobbiton movie set, which draws thousands of Lord of
the Rings and The Hobbit fans to the region every year. The complainant, who the Herald
on Sunday has agreed not to name, said the alleged behaviour made her “very scared”.
After arriving in New Zealand in October she found work at an asparagus farm, and saw a social media post advertising cheap accommodation at the Aerodrome campground.
But after her two-month stay went wrong and she left the camp, the woman posted a warning to other travellers on social media to stay away from the campsite, and complained to the Matamata-Piako District Council. After posting the warning she claims to have received messages from other campsite visitors who allegedly had similar experiences.
An experienced traveller, she said she had never endured anything like what she claimed to have experienced in Matamata.
However the woman said the incident had not sullied New Zealand’s reputation in her eyes.
“I met a lot of lovely people where I worked so I know it’s just one case and you can find these sort of people all around the world.
“It was just a bad experience, it doesn’t change my view of New Zealand at all.”
She had been contacted by the council, who told her they would be investigating.
Haimona did not respond to requests for comment.
He was also investigated in June last year after a series of social media posts offering guests a free stay if they brought “a bottle of bubbly” or “get drunk”.
At the time, Haimona said he was simply offering “Kiwi hospitality”.