Members of a marae at Northland's Karikari Peninsula on Tuesday blocked Carrington Resort's gates and refused entry to the 3000-acre estate, under the belief it is a location of interest for Covid-19.
By Courtney Hammond and Jane Nixon
It comes after the resort was speculated to be a location of interest on social media following the Far North’s most recent Covid positive cases.
A group from the Haititaimarangai Marae Trust had been guarding the resort’s gates since 8.30am but have since left after the local DHB informed them it wasn't a location of interest.
On Tuesday morning the estate posted on social media saying the business had never been contacted by the Ministry of Health.
"This morning, rogue members of the local Haititaimarangai Marae stormed to our resort reception and said to staff that there had been a positive tested Covid case visited our Resort/Winery last weekend, according the them this was based on a rumour from Facebook. They demanded us to close our resort," the post read.
"After that, they took the law into their own hands by setting up blocks at our resort main entrance, stopping anyone in and out, obstructing our operations, they have also been telling our resort staff members to go home, and when our manager tried to talk to them, they refused to communicate at the gate.
"Carrington Estate is not aware of any positive Covid case visited us recently, we have not been contacted by Minister of Health therefore we are not considered as a place of interest and we certainly do not rely on Facebook feeds.
Spokesperson for the marae, Caroline Snowden said on Tuesday morning the group planned to stay until they are satisfied with the measures put in place to protect the resort’s staff and the Karikari Peninsula community.
Snowden says the marae members were all wearing masks and observing social distancing.
Three new locations of interest were added by the Ministry of Health at 2pm on Tuesday. Two are of them are in Kaitāia and a third further north.
There was one case of Covid-19 in Northland today -a household contact of a previous case.
Carrington resort chief executive, William Tan, said the Ministry of Health have not contacted them as being a location of interest, nor had any guests been contacted.
"We have carried out trading as usual," he says.
"They were blocking our gates and I tried to talk to them but they wouldn't talk to me," he told 1News.
Tan says the marae shut the resort's gates for hours. He says police arrived around 10.30am.
"It was one guy and he was telling them to leave and in the end he couldn't do much as there were more than 10 of them and only one policeman," he says.
"One group was blocking the resort entrance and one blocking our winery entrance. They seem to think they own everything," he says.
"It's just shocking."
Tan says he's asked police if they will press charges but says he hasn't heard back.
Snowden says the marae can’t afford to wait for an official notification from the ministry when Covid is spreading through the community.
“If one person gets it, we all get it,” Snowden says.
1News has contacted police for a statement.
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