Kiwis keep close eye on unruly tourist family

Reports the unruly tourist family travelling the country are now in O¯taki are prompting tourism operators to turn away people they fear could be part of the group.

A member of the family told Newshub yesterday that the group was “hiding in the mountains” north of Wellington, but some Facebook users claimed they had seen members of the infamous group in O¯ taki.

Tony Morrissey, from Byrons Resort at O¯ taki Beach, said a woman he believed to be part of the group had tried to book accommodation with him yesterday.

“A lady with quite a strong accent came in, wanted to know if she could stay for a week, said she had herself and a couple of infants.”

Knowing the group had stayed in Levin two nights ago, Morrissey suspected the woman might be part of the family, and told her they had no vacancies.

He said he watched her go outside and get into a car full of adults.

Morrissey did not recognise the people in the car from news coverage of the tourists, but suspected it could be them.

On Thursday some of the family were apparently spotted by a local man at Z Tawa, where they charged a flat cellphone, had a smoke and bought a Coke.

One of the family members, John Johnson, told Newshub they were like “refugees”, hiding in the mountains north of Wellington.

“The reason being is that we feel that we’re going to be attacked by the locals,” he said.

Newshub said Johnson was the man in a white shirt in a video of the family at Takapuna Beach on Sunday.

He said he was holed up with his mum and dad, who are in their 60s, his sister-in-law, and three children, aged 7, 3, and 7 months.

“We are a respectable family, we are a British family who have come here, as a Commonwealth country, to

We are scared to leave, we are scared to move, we are hiding . . . we don’t know what to do. John Johnson

see New Zealand, to see the Hobbits and see the mountains,” he said.

“The way we have been treated, intimidated, we are scared to leave, we are scared to move, we are hiding at the moment. We don’t know what to do.”

He said his family left rubbish on the beach at Takapuna and his nephew lashed out because they were fleeing gang members who threatened them.

“A guy got into the car, I’m not sure if it was two I only seen one, got into the car and tried to follow us and when we turned left he tried to ram us, and we turned left and right and barely got away. So we were followed,” he said.

He told Newshub that accusations of the group behaving inappropriately at motels and restaurants were also untrue, because the family only arrived in the country on January 11, days after the alleged events.

“No member of my family stole anything at any stage in New Zealand.

“We weren’t brought up that way. We do have money and we’re happy to pay for our goods,” he said.

The travellers have made headlines around the world since several reports of theft, aggressive behaviour, and members refusing to pay for food or services, hectoring hospitality staff and claiming their food had been contaminated by ants or hair.

Newshub said the group has been served deportation notices by Immigration New Zealand, and has booked flights out of Wellington next week, but fear they’ll be attacked at the airport.