Runaway's sister gets travel bug

Aroha Hurring quickly applied for a passport to head overseas. Photo / Supplied

The sister of one of the runaway Westpac millionaires has told friends she wants to earn money so she can go travelling again.

Aroha Hurring, 22, returned to New Zealand on Wednesday after visiting sister Kara Yang-Hurring in Hong Kong, where she fled with partner Leo Gao after a bank mistake saw a $10 million line of credit approved.

The couple have been dubbed the "accidental millionaires" but the bank has clawed, back about $6 million, leaving the couple with $3.8 million.

In the wake of the error, Aroha left her West Coast home to join the couple in Hong Kong. When she returned last week, police spoke to her briefly before releasing her.

On her Facebook page this week, she told a friend she wanted to carry on travelling: "Need to go somewhere but would you believe - I got to earn some dollars first."

The Facebook page also shows Aroha enjoying her new-found celebrity by adding dozens of fans from across the world as internet "friends". She has also teased them, asking: "Where in the world am I now? Ha ha."

Aroha's Facebook welcome has also exposed her newfound friends to a diary of her quick trip, and her impressions of Hong Kong.

Yang-Hurring and Gao were last believed to be in New Zealand on May 8, three days after the bank accidentally opened up their huge line of credit.

A friend of Aroha's told the Herald on Sunday last week the impulsive traveller had no passport and no money, and was inspired to follow her sister after receiving a phone call from Macau.

The Chinese city-state is the gambling centre of Asia, and a quick day trip from Hong Kong. A hotel there has been named by Westpac in a law suit, suggesting that some money wound up deposited there.

Within a week, Aroha was on her way to join them, posting on May 16 from Australia. "I want to be back on the West Coast. I miss my man too much ... but Aussie rocks."

Two days later, she told friends: "In Asia now, travelling round. It f**king awesome ha ha!"

In a longer explanation a few days later, Aroha told friends she was having "the time of her life in Hong Kong": "Miss the West Coast but not the cold! Just tiki touring. Finished up my job so I've always wanted to go overseas. [It's] like 30 degrees plus. The heat is good, though ... heaps of water keep healthy.

"It's so crazy ... went walking around today and the smell in the street, I started to dry retch. It stunk. It's really opening my eyes. We are so lucky in NZ. So many people here and I hate being looked at coz there is, like, no white people."

For all the talk about Westpac's missing millions, Aroha had to ask people from home to top up her pre-pay mobile. "I can't get one here and the only way people can ring me from home is if I have money on my cell."

A Westpac spokesman said the bank had still not recovered the money, and did not believe Yang-Hurring or Gao had returned to New Zealand.