Rabbit Island, Wikipedia
Crimes against tourists in New Zealand is finally getting the international coverage it deserves after two young French women’s campervan was broken into at Rabbit Island, near Nelson.
Clémence De Montil and Carline Chenard are likely to write about their experiences in one of the websites we have in our “Other sites we like” links in the side bar Frogs-in-NZ. We fully expect these two women to become the object of a media focused charm offensive any moment now.
A report in the Nelson Mail said
A dream campervan holiday for two young French women is in tatters after an opportunistic thief broke into their van at Rabbit Island and took their valuables – and their story is likely to be read across France.
Carline Chenard and Clemence Montil, both 23, lost their passports, cash, bank cards and cameras on Friday afternoon when someone smashed the side window of the small campervan and removed their daypacks from under a blanket on the floor.
They had arrived in Nelson the day before and had been looking forward to writing all about their visit on the French traveller website Frogs-in-NZ, which has organised the van for five months in return for their reports.
This theft hit the news the day after a gun man robbed at least 4 parties of visitors at well known Auckland tourist spots – the Domain and Mount Eden. The man discharged his weapon into the ground as he made his escape. Read Armed Thief on the run in Auckland, in the NZ Herald.
We’ve blogged countless times about tourist vehicles, especially campervans, being targets for thieves in New Zealand yet tourists continue to be seen as easy targets. Read Visitors ‘often targeted’ by criminals in NZ by radionz.co.nz to realise just how common this problem is.
We’ve suggested public information campaigns, leaflets at airports and rental companies warning about high crime, we’ve even suggested safety deposit boxes at major tourism centres but still the thefts continue at epidemic proportions.
If you’re planning a holiday to New Zealand, please don’t believe the hype about it having low crime rates, leave your valuables under lock and key and never leave anything in a vehicle that you can’t afford to lose. We can’t say it any plainer than that.
You may also be interested in all posts tagged campervan and French Tourists
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Public servants have to beware, too, not just tourists: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11196120 “Rail staff should be able to come to work, do their job and go home safe at the end of their shift.”
I doubt whether you will see the incident talked about on that link. I used to read that forum once in awhile when you would still see the occasional grumble. They purged the members who were not pretending to be happy. As with many other NZ expat sites, there are many corporate sponsors of that site all trying to make money off of people moving to New Zealand and liking it there, Ponzi scheme-like, everyone has to join and the smile-nazi appearance with growth momentum has to be kept up.