We had had a well earned early night after a few late nights and/or early mornings, we had just drifted off to sleep when I was woken by lots of noise from within the camp, I thought it was mainly people talking interspersed with shrieks and shouts however something didn’t seem quite right.
I woke Roy and said that I thought there was some sort of commotion happening in camp, he got up and dressed and ventured out to see what was going on. He wandered around the camp but couldn’t find anything amiss so we hopped back into bed. Next minute there is a loud whooosh and bang, we were up again and looking outside. The sky had turned red with the whole campground was aglow in a red hue, and after the yellow apocalyptic skies caused by the recent Australian bush fires, we were not sure of what was going on. However, looking toward the beach we could see a distress flare slowly descending through the night sky.
With that, we were both out the door with torches in hand, off to the beach to see who or what was in distress, and who needed help. Much to our disgust, we found a family group laughing and giggling their way back to their campsite who said that they had let off what they had thought was a firework. A firework? In a closed fire season? In a sanctuary? What on earth are you thinking?
Who in their right mind comes camping for one night, brings with them a “firework”, to then make their way to the beach at 11pm to then “accidentally” set it off? As we were chastising the family group, who didn’t appear to be very remorseful, I mentioned that the setting off of the flare would probably start a chain reaction of emergency services into action, in saying that, a helicopter flew overhead.
We left the group, after they were told to be quiet and to settle down for the night as they had disturbed many of the other campers who were now also up and about, alert to a possible emergency. After reassuring other campers that all was well, we headed off back to the van. As we got back to our van, the drumming noise of the helicopter overhead circling repeatedly around the headland and waterfront was continuous so Roy rang the non emergency police number (105) to explain to them what had occurred, that it was no emergency, just idiots with mush for brains being $@*#@%+.
We crawled back to bed after all the excitement and I’m just falling asleep when we are woken again, this time with a knock, knock, knock, at the door. I leap out of bed, waking Roy on the way (the advantage? of wearing hearing aids and removing them at night means you don’t hear these things), I open the door, wearing my best nightie 🤣, to find two police personnel greeting me. It is now just before 1am.
They tell us that they wish to speak to the persons responsible for setting off the flare, and could we please take them to their campsite so they could make sure that they realise the consequences of their actions and the response, the manpower and costs involved. Roy again got dressed, putting in his hearing aids and donning his glasses before he headed off across the campground to wake the now sleeping group.
We left the Police to do their job, we don’t know what was said, how long they were with the campers or if their were any repercussions for their actions as in charges, fines or the like but I really hope that there was some sort of consequence.
The next day, the NZ Herald had a report on the act, mind you, they got nearly every “fact” wrong.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12303042
But as you can read, it did trigger a major response from all the major emergency services including both ground and helicopter Police, coastguard and search & rescue with defence force personnel put on standby.
All in all, a major waste of resources and personnel time, all for the sake of someone’s idea of “fun”.
The Vanninis' Manoeuvres 