$250 trip to beach over liquor breach

Beach-goers preparing for New Year’s celebrations are being targeted by booze ban sweeps in Whangamata¯ .

Police were proactively enforcing liquor bans in Whangamata¯ early on Saturday evening, with officers in two large people movers and a transport van doing laps of the main roads and beach carparks.

Dismayed holidaymakers were asked to present and pour any alcohol they had in their vehicles.

If people did not have proof of immediate purchase – for example, a receipt – the liquor would be confiscated and poured out. In one sweep of a beach car park, police wrote up three $250 fines.

Hamiltonian Michael Wilson, 20, and his six friends had parked at the beach to swim before settling at a friends house for the weekend. The group had bought two boxes of vodka cruisers in Waihi just half an hour before. They were sealed and still cold.

‘‘I bought them for the police to tip them out,’’ he said, jokingly.

Police asked them to open the car, he said, and they obliged. The cruisers were then poured out. ‘‘It’s a bit intimidating really, four police officers coming up to you.’’

Friend Daniel Siasi, 19, said it was ‘‘revenue-taxing’’.

Julien Sommer, 24, and Lena Wegner, 19, travellers from Germany touring the Coromandel in a campervan, were baffled to receive a fine. ‘‘We were just here for a shower, an expensive shower,’’ Sommer said.

The pair were unaware the liquor ban extended to having alcohol in a vehicle, and had six cans of beer and one 1.25L bottle of cider tipped out. A visibly upset Wegner said: ‘‘We won’t pay it.’’

Sommer was ambivalent: ‘‘It seems we have no other choice.’’

Danny Jeong, 24, travelled from Auckland to spend the day at the beach along with four others. In a green chiller bag in the boot of their car sat four bottles of Heineken, which didn’t leave the bag due to the liquor ban.

Two police officers approached the group and asked if they had any alcohol. ‘‘We were honest with them, we didn’t lie or anything.’’

Written up for a $250 fine, the group was confused about what could have been done differently.

‘‘They said they can’t give out warnings because it’s the New Year period – it’s just a bit harsh. Our day trip to the beach just got $250 more expensive.’’

Waikato eastern area commander John Kelly said everyone knew there was a zero tolerance policy over the New Year period.