Swarm of bees strikes city hotel
A woman whose car was invaded by a swarm of bees says she had no choice but to swiftly remove her infant son and run for it.
The incident happened outside New Plymouth’s Quality Hotel Plymouth International on Saturday, after an unknown person parked a truck carrying about 20 beehives in the hotel’s carpark, before leaving.
About 2pm, Erin Vaughn pulled into the carpark and bees began entering her vehicle through opened windows.
‘‘I glanced up and saw stuff floating around and then all of a sudden they started coming in through the window,’’ she said.
‘‘I think we just parked in the wrong car park.’’
She quickly grabbed her young son, Grae Kirkby, from his car seat in the back and ‘‘ran for my life.’’
Thousands of bees were seen flying about and clinging to her vehicle.
Vaughn’s father, Tony Vaughn, was later instructed to take the car for a drive in an effort to shake off the bees.
A spokeswoman for the hotel said due to people arriving to pick up race packs for an upcoming marathon it had been a busy day at the hotel.
She said visitors had been a little unsettled by the swarm but it was mostly business as usual.
The truck carrying the hives had been parked on site and unmanned for about half an hour but she wasn’t sure who owned it or why it was left there.
‘‘I rung the police to try and find out who owned it. We don’t know where he’s come from.’’
She also phoned a beekeeper who was at the scene rounding up the swarm.
Bystander Matthew Nightingale said he had seen an unmarked truck parked outside of the hotel carrying about 20 beehives.
‘‘The bees are just lingering,’’ he said.
‘‘There’s some around by the pool too, they want the water.’’
Nightingale, of Wellington, had just checked into the hotel when he saw the truck which also had a crane on the back of it.
He didn’t know why the truck had chosen to park in the hotel’s car park.
‘‘He was just being an idiot,’’ he said.