Elderly man still recovering in hospital after his campervan was flipped in suspected Northland tornado

RNZ News

16-07-2025

A 79-year-old man remains in hospital in Northland after suffering multiple injuries
when a suspected tornado
flipped his campervan.
What was described by campers as a twister hit Tauranga Bay Holiday Park in the Far North at 8.05am on Tuesday, picking up a caravan and hurling it into a tree about 60m away.
The owner of the caravan, Phil Wallan, told RNZ he was certain he would have died if he had been in it at the time.
He had driven to Kerikeri to pick up supplies just a short time earlier.
Phil Wallan's caravan was destroyed when it was blown more than 60m into a tree by a suspected tornado.
Photo:
Supplied
A large campervan was also flipped onto its side, trapping its injured owner inside.
Fellow campers managed to climb inside to offer first aid while emergency services were on their way.
He was rescued by volunteer firefighters from the Kerikeri and Kāeo brigades who cut through the windscreen to get him out.
A campground staff member who visited the 79-year-old in hospital said he had a gash to his head, a broken collarbone and a sore back, but was recovering.
The nature of his back injury had yet to be ascertained.
The suspected tornado flipped this campervan on its side, injuring the 79-year-old occupant.
Photo:
Supplied
Kerrin and Jane Mangos, who were parked nearby, said it felt like an earthquake when the twister hit.
Their caravan's stabilisers had been damaged so they were planning to take it for repairs before any more wild weather hit.
Campground manager Leah Bowsher said the flipped campervan had been righted and loaded onto a truck on Wednesday.
A cleanup of debris from the destroyed caravan was continuing.
A power box had also been wrecked and several campervans had lost their awnings.
Co-manager Harry Bowsher told RNZ campers were shaken by Tuesday's drama, and "very, very lucky" no one had been more seriously injured.
No one was luckier than Phil Wallan, whose caravan was picked up like a plaything and smashed into a Norfolk pine.
"If he'd been in there we'd be taking out a body," he said.
No one spoken to by RNZ saw a tornado that morning but some campers saw a waterspout forming a day earlier.
CCTV from the holiday park office showed debris swirling in circles, lending credence to claims of a twister, before the caravan half-rolled, half-flew across the campground.
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