Tourist unrepentant over rock art break-in

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JUST LOOKING: A German tourist gets too close to the Maerewhenua Maori rock art site near Duntroon.

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A German tourist who broke into a protected Maori rock art site in South Canterbury is unrepentant.

The Timaru Herald yesterday published photographs, which have also appeared on an online travel blog, of a German tourist breaking into the Maerewhenua Maori rock art site near Duntroon.

The woman is shown climbing past the protective netting around the rock drawings and then inside the site. The pictures on the woman's blog  have since been removed.

Ngai Tahu Maori Rock Art Trust curator Amanda Symon, who had been looking after the site for six years, was shocked and disgusted at the "incredibly stupid" actions of the tourist.

"They have come here and desecrated one of our heritage sites. It is just completely thoughtless to squeeze in there. She is brushing past a rock drawing so there is huge potential to do damage," she told The Timaru Herald.

The paintings depicted at the site ranged from birds and reptiles to European sailing ships.

Requests for an interview with the tourist have gone unanswered. However, the woman, posting at travel weblog site Travelpod.com under the name Silberregen, yesterday wrote a rambling response to the media report.

She said she treated the protective barrier as a puzzle and didn't damage anything. She also slammed global media as an executioner and "biggest damn power... on this planet" and told people to worry about "things that really matter".

"And then was there the temptaition (sic) of the fact that somebody must have managed to get into a so it seamed well secured place. So we started wondering how hard can it be to go in there. It was more the fascination of solving a riddle than to actually get a prize for it. It wasn't hard after all," she wrote.

- © Fairfax NZ News