Coronavirus: Freedom camping family hunker down for lockdown

A German family freedom camping throughout New Zealand is hunkering down in Raglan after being unable to leave before the lockdown.

Sebastian Wenzel and his wife Ursula arrived in the country on February 23 to join their 19-year-old son Sylvester and 19-year-old niece Henni Veltheim who arrived in October.

Since then they have been freedom camping around the country.

Starting in Christchurch, they moved up the South Island and onto the North Island before arriving in New Plymouth this week, where they heard the news the country was going into lockdown at 11:59pm Wednesday and they needed to find a place to stay. "We rented a place in Raglan and that's where we're going to stay until this is over," Wenzel said. The woman renting the home to them gave the group a 50 per cent discount so they could manage to stay put. READ MORE:* Stranded Danes 'overwhelmed' by kindness of Kiwi strangers* Coronavirus: No new confirmed cases in Taranaki, 205 confirmed or probable cases nationally* Coronavirus: Raglan surf group warns against solo surfs under lockdown They were meant to continue north until April 9, then fly to Bali before returning to Germany. The family are now preparing to be stuck here for more than two months. "Because we're from Europe we thought we were in a really good place. "It seems like we couldn't escape the madness and now we're caught here, which looks like harder restrictions." Wenzel owns his own business and so as long as he has an internet connection he can work from anywhere in the world. He said the lockdown was the right thing to do to stop the spread of the disease. "It might be an inconvenience now but in the bigger picture it's clever to shut it down now quickly. "It's out of our hands so there is no reason to go crazy over it. We've got to be realistic about it and patient." And going into lockdown in a foreign country hasn't ruined their trip. "We've had a great time so far. "Kiwi's are really friendly and we've enjoyed your beautiful country. Super clean. Beautiful people, beautiful landscape."