A young Greymouth woman holidaying in Bali was robbed of her passport, travel documents, phone and money cards in a brazen theft on Sunday night.
Kasey Miles, 21, was walking back to her accommodation when a man riding a scooter ripped the small hidden neck security travel bag from around her neck as he scooted past.
Miles said thief quickly spun around on his scooter and ripped the bag away: "It happened so fast I almost didn't notice."
The same evening another member of their group was targeted in the same manner but this time the thief failed to wrench the bag from around the second victim's neck.
Miles said it showed that no matter how careful you were there was always a risk of being robbed.
Others in the group she was travelling with had taken precautions to stay safe, including never wandering out and about alone, day or night.
Her word of caution to New Zealanders travelling around Asia was to always be aware of their surroundings and to not trust any of the locals, "no matter how nice they appear to be".
Before arriving in Bali, the New Zealanders attended the New Year's Eve Full Moon party on Koh Phangnan Island in Thailand, where a number of people were showered in red hot sparks when the fireworks display malfunctioned.
Miles said one moment it was all excitement, and the next the sparks were caught in the wind and started spraying the crowd.
"A couple of people fell over and that kickstarted a frenzy with everyone running everywhere and one girl fell over and broke her leg in the craziness."
A lot of people were burned, including one of the boys in her group who received "heaps" of burns from the flying sparks.
- Greymouth Star
