Police disappointed by an attack that left a young German tourist needing hospital treatment have been heartened by the generous response of Northland businesses to their plight.
Two German women, aged 18 and 19, were staying in a van in the parking area behind the Kawakawa post office when they were attacked by four youths as young as 13 around midnight on Monday last week.
The incident is thought to have started when the group tried to steal a backpack. As one of the tourists retrieved her property she was punched, choked and indecently assaulted.
Senior Sergeant Brian Swann, head of Mid North police, said the main offender was a 16-year-old girl from Ohaeawai. She had been remanded in CYF custody and was due back in the Kaikohe Youth Court on December 12 charged with demanding to steal and assault with intent to injure.
The three others - two boys from Kawakawa and a girl from Whangarei, all aged 13 - could not be charged due to their age. They had instead been referred to police Youth Aid.
The injured tourist had been treated at Bay of Islands Hospital. What had been thought to be a broken nose was bruised. The second woman was unhurt but both had been badly shaken.
What was pleasing, however, was the way Mid North businesses had responded to the tourists' ordeal.
Mr Swann said the women had been shown around by Waitangi Treaty Grounds staff and treated to meals, a dolphin cruise and parasailing by Bay of Islands businesses.
''It helped them realise that it [the attack] was a one-off thing committed by a minority of people. The whole country isn't like that,'' Mr Swann said.
''We appreciate the support local businesses have shown by showing them the other side of this country. Unfortunately these things happen sometimes, but we always get a good response when they do.''
The two women are understood to have left Northland on Sunday.
The Kawakawa car park where they were staying is an official freedom camping site as designated by the Far North District Council.