Motel owner upset by car enthusiasts

A Te Anau motel owner is upset by the behaviour of guests attached to a visiting car club and says some are now not welcome back.

Fifteen members or associates of the Gore-based Southern Aussie Muscle Car Club checked in at the Alpine View Motel on Saturday.

They had travelled to Te Anau as part of the Aussie Crawl car rally, which is hosted annually by the Southland Holden and the Ford Falcon Clubs.

Alpine View Motel owner Rodger Mackenzie was disappointed by what he believed was bad behaviour from some guests associated with the Southern Aussie Muscle Car Club.

Mackenzie said at 7pm one drunken guest urinated over the motel car park a few metres from its children’s playground, despite a toilet in the motel room close by.

‘‘We are a family motel, the children’s playground was across from where he was pissing. We were fortunate we didn’t have any children staying with us, it was only seven o’clock at night.’’

When Mackenzie talked to club representatives, including president MaryAnne Barclay, about the overall behaviour during their stay, he felt they did not take the matter seriously.

Barclay provided a statement from the club’s committee that said the person involved in the urinating incident was not a club member, he was a passenger of a club member on the car rally.

The committee was sorry it had occurred, and it did not condone the behaviour, it said.

At the time the person was asked to clean up the mess. He told the club committee he apologised to staff and did clean up by pouring water over the area.

‘‘He thought this would be the end of the matter.’’

Mackenzie said drunken club members also returned to their rooms after 2am on Sunday and were very loud, waking up guests.

‘‘When you come here [to Te Anau] on holiday it’s nice and peaceful and tranquil.’’

The club committee’s statement said: ‘‘It was a Saturday night and when staying in a motel you can expect that there will be people returning to their rooms at different times of the night. These are adults on the car run, and we cannot control what time they go to bed.’’

Mackenzie added club members revved their car engines at 8.30am on Sunday sparking a guest to confront them, and in turn, leave a bad review of the motel.

‘‘Some sort of consideration would have been good, but these people had none,’’ Mackenzie said.

The committee responded: ‘‘With respect, these are classic cars. It was a cold morning, and they need to warm up before they can be driven anywhere.’’

Mackenzie said they bought the family-oriented and owned business in February 2019.

Since then, they had not experienced any sort of behaviour like what had taken place at the weekend.

He said those staying at the weekend who were involved in the ‘‘bad behaviour’’ or who had brushed the motel owners off when trying to address the matter would not be welcomed back.

‘‘Some sort of consideration would have been good, but these people had none.’’ Rodger Mackenzie Alpine View Motel owner