Wild winds cause campervan chaos

The dangers of camping under big trees during wild weather have been highlighted recently, after reports of two separate hair-raising incidents in Australia and New Zealand.

In late September an Avida Esperance motorhome parked at Kununurra's Ivanhoe Village caravan park in Western Australia was damaged when an uprooted tree landed on its roof.

While there were no reports of injuries, wind gusts up to 118km reported in the area caused widespread damage including upturned planes at the Kununurra airport. The Department of Fire and Emergency Services WA were on the scene for the clean up.

More recently, over on New Zealand's South Island a young family were lucky to escape unhurt when a tree crashed through the roof of their Maui rental motorhome parked up at a lakeside reserve near Kingston.

Concerned for their safety, the family of four from Christchurch had just moved to the front of the vehicle in the middle of the night during the wild storm.

"It was full-on — it felt like the van was about to be picked up and rolled over." the father told the Otago Daily Times.

"The tree then fell through and smashed right on the seat, within seconds of me moving," he said. "If we hadn’t got our son out of the top bunk, it would’ve hit him, too."

His other young son remained in his bed sleeping but was fortunately protected by the upper bunk.

The gale force winds also damaged houses and property in the nearby Queenstown suburb of Frankton.

"The wind was that strong we could hardly walk, trees and branches were falling down, and the gravel was flying around and smashing into everything," the father said.

Shaken but not deterred, the family continued on with their 10-day touring holiday after the rental company supplied a replacement vehicle.

"I think we’ll just take our time, and not park under any trees," he said.

Related: 

Top-10 caravan calamaties