Thursday, November 9, 2017
FRENCH working couple, Clara Dumont and Remi Villate found a safe haven at Motu Trails accommodation facility in town after their scary experience at Hukuwai Beach. Photo Ross McCullough OB4027-2
TWO visiting French workers are not going to let one of their first experiences in Opotiki in mid-September overshadow the many beautiful people they have met since and the memories they have made while here.
Clara Dumont and her partner Remi Villate, both from France, had been staying in their minivan at one of the district’s designated freedom camping sites at Hukuwai Beach just out of Opotiki.
On their second night they were asleep when woken by a man who had opened the sliding door on their minivan, claiming to be a police officer.
“He just opened the door and yelled to us he was a policeman,” said Ms Dumont, who hails from near the Swiss border and Geneva.
Mr Villate, who lives near Paris, said the man was just drunk and being stupid, but it was a scary experience.
As it all happened in a flash, the couple didn’t get the opportunity to ask the man for identification or ask what they were doing wrong for the intrusion.
Other than being woken from their sleep nothing untoward occurred.
The mystery man was part of a group of people who went on to do burnouts in one car in the camp site’s carpark.
They could not get any details of the car, nor its occupants because it was dark.
“It was in the middle of the night, we were just surprised and were thinking, ‘wow, what just happened?’ It was very quick,” Ms Dumont said.
Another couple was also staying in a campervan at the site, but they weren’t disturbed, Mr Villate said.
The couple did not report the incident to the police as they considered it impossible to find the culprit, and they wanted to put the incident behind them and move on to enjoy the rest of their time in Opotiki.
Following the incident, the couple, who were working at a Woodlands tamarillo orchard, decided they wanted somewhere more comfortable to stay, with shower and toilet facilities, and they discovered the Motu Trails accommodation complex in town, where they have been since.
Motu Trails Shuttle and Accommodation owner Ngaio Knebel said it was due to the incident at the designated freedom camping site, that Dumont and Villate ended up with her in town in a “safe environment”.
Mrs Knebel said the incident was nothing other than intimidation.
“It makes me sick ... we want to give visitors to Opotiki a good impression of the town and its people, and then for them to go away with that.”
Opotiki police Sergeant Dale Allison yesterday encouraged the couple to report their experience if they wished.
Before arriving in Opotiki, the couple had been in New Zealand for a few months and had already gained an impression of what people in this country were like in terms of their good nature.
While Ms Dumont acknowledged the incident that morning was scary, it had not affected the rest of their stay.
The couple said they had met many local people who had been incredibly nice and who had helped them to really enjoy their time in Opotiki.
She said their best memories were the friendships they had made with local people and other backpackers.
Ms Dumont said they had been able to learn some of the local culture and last Thursday night attended a fundraising concert by Ashbrook School’s senior kapa haka group for visiting workers before leaving for their national competition this week.
After finishing some kiwifruit work at the end of the week, the couple will depart Opotiki to continue their New Zealand adventure.
Couple’s ordeal six weeks before brake tampering
Ross McCullough
THE French couple’s unpleasant ordeal was about six weeks before last week’s discovery in Gisborne of another targeted tourist attack.
In the Gisborne incident, freedom campers from Germany staying overnight at a popular surf spot carpark had the brakes on their three Toyota vans deliberately tampered with.
It could have had fatal results, which had caused dismay and outrage across the country.
The Gisborne Herald reported that the German tourists’ three vans had been parked at the southern end of Makorori Beach when someone deliberately cut their brake lines.
Detective Sergeant Kevin Ford said when the driver of one of the vehicles went to drive off and noticed he had no brakes, he was still able to stop and found his brake lines cut.
Mr Ford told the Gisborne Herald there was obviously some “disaffected” person out there who had taken exception to the presence of the freedom campers.
“This is absolutely blockhead behaviour and we want to catch up with whoever did it,” he said.
Gisborne police hoped that someone parked in the Makorori Beach area, or driving by on the coast highway, may have seen it happening or something suspicious going on.
“We want to hear from them,” Mr Ford said.