A camper living at the abandoned Gulf Harbour Country Club has threatened visitors with a weapon, locals say, but the men camping there say it is them that are being harassed.
The property on the Hibiscus Coast was formerly a prestigious golf course and landmark of the area, but has been abandoned and plagued with issues including arson, and a hefty demolition bill owed to Auckland Council.
Residents have posted on the neighbourhood Facebook page about two incidents when visitors to the property were threatened.
But a man living at the club said this was all part of a vigilante hunt to target him, along with the other campers.
He said locals had been harassing and threatening them, and they were only giving as good as they got.
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Tim Stewart has been living in his caravan at the property since shortly after the course was abandoned last year.
Tim Stewart's camp set-up, while he lives at the Gulf Harbour Country Club. Photo: RNZ/ Luka Forman
He is retired and said he could not afford to rent a place - so he lives in his caravan and tries to enjoy some peace and quiet.
But he had not had much of that recently. He said last month a local woke him with an early morning visit.
"By the time I've put my trousers on to come up, I see the car screaming at the camper, as if it was going to hit him. Which is a lot worse than having an object thrown at you - a car is a lethal weapon times 10. So then the camper has chased him, thrown the object and it was nice and peaceful for a few days."
Two incidents were posted about on the Keep Whangaparāoa's Green Spaces Facebook page.
One described a camper throwing a weapon at a car - the poster did not want to comment to RNZ.
Zane Rowe, who also camped at the property, admitted it was him but said the visitor was having a go at Stewart first.
"He put his window down, started abusing him, telling him to **** off: 'You burned the place down, you smashed the place, you wrecked the place, you shouldn't be here'.
"I basically came out just to scare the guy."
Zane Rowe, who is camping at the abandoned Gulf Harbour Country Club. Photo: RNZ/ Luka Forman
Rowe threw a type of gardening tool at the car, he said - a sickle, not a machete like the locals on the Facebook page claimed.
Another local, who did not want to be named, said he drove up to the club to see what was left of it, and a camper swore at him and then got a weapon out of his van.
He lived nearby and said he would consider getting a restraining order if any more violent incidents happened.
Stewart said he felt intimidated by the visiting locals, but was not planning on going anywhere.
"There's a great Winston Churchill speech isn't there: 'We shall fight them on the beaches and we shall fight them on the airfields, we shall never surrender," he laughed.
"When I feel I'm in the right I will battle for my rights."
He said the owner had given him permission to stay there.
But Wayne Bailey, director of Long River Investments, which owns the property, did not want to comment on this to Checkpoint.
The abandoned Gulf Harbour Country Club, on the Whangaparāoa Peninsula. Photo: RNZ/ Luka Forman
A police spokesperson said as the site was private property it had no jurisdiction to remove the man, and it could not confirm whether he had permission to be there.
Albany ward councillor John Watson said the campers at the country club were just the latest in a string of issues at the property.
"We've had arson - this magnificent country club burned down. We've had anti-social behaviour, we've had vandalism. So the community out here are really at the end of their tether."
The owners of the property were allowing the campers to stay on the property, Watson believed, or at least turning a blind eye to it - as part of their plan to let the property go to ruin.
"I'm quite sure the bad publicity, the want and neglect are all quite acceptable to them. Because it fits in with their narrative that somehow this course can't be run.
"Where in fact we know it can be, it was in the past. And there are people around who can do it again."
The owners wanted to develop the land for housing, he said, though they would need to get around a 1000-year covenant with the council for the land to stay as green space.
Checkpoint put this to Wayne Bailey but he did not want to comment on this issue either.
