FANTASY ISLAND
How they did it
Images showing how a group of friends built a sand island in Tairua Harbour to enjoy a few cold ones on New Year’s Eve surfaced yesterday as it emerged the temporary refuge was a Kiwi-American project.
About a dozen people helped make a “sand-sanctuary” to avoid a strict liquor ban in the Coromandel. They said they were “in international waters” and not subject to the ban.
Leon Hayward said three Americans had been in on the fun and it took about six hours to build.
“We thought it would be a good laugh and the drinking ban would be a grey area if we were on our own island,” he told Time magazine.
Hayward said it was “pretty nuts” how much international attention the story had received.
They used wheelbarrows, shovels and hands to heap the black sand and sea shells into a mound at low tide.
It was finished with wooden planks to help distribute the drinkers’ weight.
By the time the tide came in they had a picnic table and chilly bin set up on the island to welcome in 2018.
In a post to the Tairua ChitChat! Facebook page, photos show the group surrounded by boats, a kayaker and a paddle-boarder.
Waikato eastern area commander Inspector John Kelly admired the group’s attempt to avoid the liquor ban. “That’s creative thinking — if I had known that I probably would have joined them,” he said.
Locals had called for a liquor ban after trouble in previous years.
Whangamata community stalwart and Beach Hop founder Noddy Watts said it was time for a change after police made numerous arrests of drunk teens over the New Year period for the past few years.