British nightmare tourists expelled from New Zealand

A family of British tourists branded “worse than pigs” are facing deportation from New Zealand following a string of anti-social incidents.

John Johnson and his brother, David, and their partners, children and mother, Eileen Doran, arrived in the country on Friday, after apparently wreaking havoc on their flight out, says The Times.

Since then, they have outraged residents of Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, and Hamilton, by committing offences including littering, assault, not paying for restaurant meals and intimidating locals.

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Indeed, Slate reports that after reports about their behaviour went viral, the entire nation has become “obsessed” with the family, who include “a large man in red shorts and a white tank top, a woman in a unicorn onesie, and a small, angry boy”. The news site says these three have become “the unwilling public faces of this terrible family, who number about 12”.

The New Zealand Herald even went as far as to create “a timeline detailing the bad family’s every infraction - a news device usually reserved for covering quickly unfolding national emergencies like earthquakes or tropical storms”, Slate adds.

Auckland’s Mayor Phil Goff has decried the tourists’ behaviour and demanded that police take action. “These guys are trash. They are leeches,” Goff told a local radio station.

“If you say one time ‘I found a hair or an ant in my meal’ you’d believe it, but they find it every meal that they have as a way of evading payment. That’s a criminal activity. They’re worse than pigs and I’d like to see them out of the country.”

Peter Devoy, assistant general manager for Immigration New Zealand (INZ), told Reuters that five individuals from the group had been served with Deportation Liability Notices, the first stage in the deportation process.

He added that the individuals can appeal against the deportation orders and can only be deported if they agree to waive their appeal rights or if the appeal rights expire.

David Johnson, one of the only named members of the family, told the Herald that they had been treated unfairly, and said that he and his family would now miss out on a visit to a location used in the Lord of the Rings films.

“We’re here to see the hobbits. I’ve been looking at the hobbits my whole life, since I’m born,” he added. “That was originally what our plan was, but it’s all been f***ed up now. I feel very unwelcome here.”