Great Barrier Island residents angry at boaties using island as holiday resort during lockdown

Boats moored in the distance at Smokehouse Bay, Great Barrier Island. March 28, 2020.

Some residents on Auckland's Great Barrier Island say visiting boaties moored up in harbours there during the coronavirus lockdown are treating it like a holiday park, flouting distancing rules and using up valuable resources.

One local - who wished to remain anonymous - told 1 NEWS they saw around 45 boats moored up in Smokehouse Bay after the lockdown period began.

The resident says many of the boaties are coming ashore, and at Smokehouse Bay they witnessed their kids playing on playgrounds while the adults socialised, ignoring the Government's social distancing rules.

"One local had a confrontation with a boatie at Port Fitzroy, who told him to f off," the person living in Great Barrier Island's north told 1 NEWS.

The resident has concerns for the local infrastructure, especially if people get sick on the island where there is only one medical centre in Claris.

"We are such a small community and don't have resources to cater for extra people, it will be catastrophic when someone gets the virus, I am so angry about it."

The local said police on the island have limited resources and there isn't much they can do to police the boaties.

"The local police don’t have a boat to use and the police boat Deodar is apparently not in service at present," the resident said.

"People are worried resources will run out all over the island, the boats need to go home." 

The message comes as there’s concern some people are not adhering to the lockdown rules.

“I find there's two types of people at the moment: There's the types of people like ‘stay away’, and then there's the types of people who are actually being more friendly,” one man on Auckland's Tamaki Drive told 1 NEWS yesterday.

Authorities have stressed over recent days for people to keep at least two metres apart from others not in their “bubble”.

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