Residents track tourists in capital

Some of the unruly tourists making their way down the country arrived in the capital city yesterday.

A flurry of social media posts greeted the tourists to Wellington, after their progress was followed south from Hamilton.

Some of the group appeared to have remained behind near Rotorua, with a confirmed sighting near Lake Whakamaru north of Taupo¯.

In Tawa outside Wellington, Bart Blithe posted photos on Facebook, saying he had seen some of the group in the local Z petrol station. Blithe put up photos of a man in a red T-shirt and yellow shorts walking through the petrol station.

“I’ve warned the staff at Z who they are,” he wrote.

“They’re just getting a cellphone charged apparently.”

Blithe said he followed them around the petrol station before the group left, heading south on the motorway.

“I had warned staff before they got the fuel nozzle in the car.”

He said the people had a smoke and bought a soft drink while there.

The sighting followed a comment by a Levin motel owner confirming a carload of the group spent the night at his motel.

The Levin motelier said members of the group had arrived on Wednesday night — and tried three times to talk him down in price.

They checked in for five people, but he believed more may have stayed. “They just kept getting out of the car.”

He said they had behaved themselves and been “pretty quiet”.

The travellers have made headlines around the world since a video emerged of rubbish being strewn on a Takapuna Beach reserve. Bystanders asked the group to tidy the mess but were abused.