Sixteen-year-old NZ-born Laura Dekker has swapped the Dutch flag on her boat for the NZ one, after disagreements about her education. Photo / AP
New Zealand is being accused of failing to support a teen sailor attempting to become the youngest person to circumnavigate the world solo.
Dutch girl Laura Dekker, 15, was born on her parents' yacht when it was docked in Whangarei, making her a New Zealand citizen.
She began what is
expected to be a two-year trip last August and will arrive in Australia for a two-week stopover at the end of this month.
Her manager, Australian Lyall Mercer, today Dekker did not take her New Zealand nationality lightly and had especially embraced it since starting to feel "disconnected" from The Netherlands after courts there stopped her from embarking on her trip when she was 13.
"Yet she has failed to find any support from New Zealand, unable even to source a New Zealand flag that she wants to fly from her boat 'Guppy' for the duration of her trip," Mercer said.