Boy racer mayhem tears up Eketahuna junction

A convoy of boy racers descended on the farming area of Nireaha near Eketahuna late Friday night, staging a huge roadside party outside the hall and wheel-spinning their cars until the sealed road surface was wrecked.

Some farmers at Nireaha heard the racket created by what is thought to be dozens of cars, but presumed it was the noise of army exercises that are being held in the vicinity.

They awoke on Saturday morning to be confronted with a sea of empty cans, spirit bottles and the ripped remains of numerous tyres strewn around the historic Nireaha Hall.

The sealed road surface at the four-way intersection had been reduced to a torn-up litter of black rubber.

Eketahuna Community Board chairman Charlie Death, who said he was shocked by the vandalism, organised a team of people who spent more than an hour picking up rubbish left behind by the boy racers.

More than three sacks of liquor cans and bottles were collected along with an array of other discarded bits and pieces.

Earlier the cars had been spied heading to Nireaha from the south, with reports that "dozens" of vehicles were part of the convoy and that several cars were racing two-abreast.

Mr Death said he estimates from the reports of those who heard noise that the wheel-spinners spent about an hour and a half ripping up the area and partying.

Damage to the seal that can not be reinstated without a re-sealing programme would be expected to run into thousands of dollars.

Unless re-sealing is done the intersection will remain an ugly mess of black rubber, potentially for years, until it weathers away.

Normally the intersection can be monitored by people living nearby but on Friday night people living in the nearest houses were away for the night.

The call has gone out from the community board for people throughout the Eketahuna area to report any vehicles being driven erratically and to note registration plate numbers, colours and makes of cars congregating without apparent cause.

The wheel-spinning orgy follows similar but smaller-scale damage at Kopuaranga and Mauriceville. and a belief by police that rural areas are being targeted because of police vigilance in urban areas.