"It's been going on since earlier this year but now the holidays are here I fear it's going to get worse. It started off with just a few but now there are more of them, it's gathered strength."
She said it started with just a few kids aged around 11. The most recent events have involved teenagers and even adults, numbering around 25.
"I've been here two years and the lady next door around six months. They go along the street, taunting us and giving us the finger. It's just awful. They don't seem to have any respect for anyone.
"One day they came down our right of way into my yard, and I kept asking them to leave and they wouldn't. One of them said it was their land. We're both Pakeha, they're Maori. It's a deep hatred from them."
Mrs Cornish lives in the house with her two grandsons, who are 6 and 8. Her neighbour is 65 and occasionally has her mother, aged in her 80s, stay over.
"We're not sleeping at night, we're scared they're going to come on to the yard. They have threatened to put bricks through our windows and threatened harm to us," Mrs Cornish said.
Rotorua police Senior Sergeant Brendon Keenan said police had increased patrols in the Owhata area. He also said police were able to deal with children as young as 10.
"It's always worth getting police involved as police can still do stuff with young people - the options and channels are different," he said.
