KEY POINTS:
An attractive and popular Bay of Islands walking track from which an English woman tourist was dragged and sexually assaulted is usually well frequented by visitors.
"It would be normal to run into other people on the track every 10 or 15 minutes," said Waitangi National Trust spokesman
Michael Hooper.
The 27-year-old victim of last Wednesday's attack has told police she was accosted while walking on the partly closed track between the Waitangi Treaty Grounds and the Haruru Falls carpark.
She says she was dragged from the track and seriously sexually assaulted by an athletically built European man in his mid- to late-30s who spoke with a North American accent.
A 10-strong police team has been working on the inquiry but Detective Sergeant Rhys Johnston of Kaikohe says there are no specific leads.
The track on which the assault occurred is about 5km long and runs from across the road from the Treaty Grounds to the Haruru Falls carpark.
Mr Hooper said it was an attractive, varied and easy walk, although a section of the track had been washed out by storms last July. Signs are in place and the walk is being progressively reopened as repair work continues, although it is possible for walkers to climb through the washed-out section.
Part of the track runs parallel to the Waitangi Golf Course and also winds through mangrove and bush areas.
Mr Johnston said the victim had entered the track from the Waitangi Treaty Grounds end. She had climbed through the slip area before being attacked between 5.30pm and 6pm and pulled from the track about 1.5km from the Haruru Falls end.
He said the bruised and traumatised woman, who is on a working holiday in New Zealand, had been helped by Mid North Victim Support and was now "with people she knows". She received medical treatment after the assault.
Her attacker is said to have dark brown hair, blue eyes and a large ring on his right hand. He was wearing blue jeans, a navy blue T-shirt with a white pattern on the front and was carrying what appeared to be a full backpack.
Police want to hear from anyone who walked the track between the Treaty Grounds and the Falls on Wednesday afternoon or evening. They should call Paihia police on (09) 402 6102.
* A Dutch couple honeymooning in New Zealand were accosted and kidnapped in their campervan near the Haruru Falls carpark by two Northland men in November 2006.
Keith McEwen, 30, and Christopher Mana Manuel, 27, forced their way into the couple's campervan before the victims were tied up, driven around central Northland and forced to withdraw money from an ATM machine.
Both men received lengthy jail terms when they were sentenced in the High Court at Whangarei last year.
