{"id":271390,"date":"2026-02-06T23:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T23:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/271390\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T23:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T23:08:08","slug":"woman-awarded-compensation-after-harassment-permitted-at-kawai-purapura-retreat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/271390\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman awarded compensation after \u2018harassment\u2019 permitted at Kawai Purapura retreat"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to a Tenancy Tribunal<\/a> decision, Cameron claimed the landlord, the trust, breached the Residential Tenancies Act by allowing a fellow tenant to breach her quiet enjoyment of the premises.<\/p>\n

That tenant, Karl Keller, was accused of sending a threatening message, throwing things around outside, constantly running a tap that was attached to the outside of Cameron\u2019s cabin, playing loud music, and being near her cabin when he had no reason to be.<\/p>\n

Keller told NZME his actions have been misinterpreted, that he never meant her any harm, and maintains his innocence, despite being convicted of intimidating Cameron.<\/p>\n

Cameron told the tribunal the landlord should have enforced the \u201cHouse Rules\u201d and evicted Keller.<\/p>\n

She also claimed the landlord was liable for an earlier burglary at her cabin, as she said the premises were represented as \u201csafe\u201d but \u201cpeople with criminal records\u201d were allowed to stay there.<\/p>\n

The decision notes there could have been as many as 100 people staying at the retreat at one time.<\/p>\n

\"KawaiKawai Purapura, photographed in 2013, was the former site of the Centrepoint commune. The property was purchased by the Prema Charitable Trust in 2008, but has since been sold.<\/p>\n

Cameron initially sought $130,796 in compensation and exemplary damages \u2013 a significant amount of this being \u201clost wages\u201d.<\/p>\n

She reduced it to $100,000, however, so it would fall within the jurisdiction of the tribunal; $65,000 of that was attributed to lost wages.<\/p>\n

A retreat, a burglary, and ongoing harassment<\/p>\n

Cameron told NZME she wanted to stay at Kawai Purapura as, while at a retreat in Bali, she had become unwell and hadn\u2019t had \u201cthe opportunity to have the retreat [she] wanted\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was hoping to get … exactly what it said on the website, a peaceful place … the opportunity of doing yoga, bush walks, things like that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe former retreat, Kawai Purapura, in Albany. Photo \/ Sarah Ivey.<\/p>\n

However, in the weeks after arriving, she was admitted to hospital for a \u201cserious health emergency\u201d.<\/p>\n

While in hospital, Cameron asked Keller to lock her cabin, but this didn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n

However, Keller called to say her cabin had been burgled and the police had been called. <\/p>\n

The details of the burglary aren\u2019t included in the decision, but after returning from hospital, Keller sent Cameron a message.<\/p>\n

Cameron said it read: \u201cf***king thieving c**t\u201d, and next time he\u2019d \u201cleave [her] on her deck to die\u201d.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s understood this referred to an unreturned jumper Keller may have given her when she went to hospital.<\/p>\n

After the text, which Keller did not deny sending, Cameron notified Kawai Purapura management, explaining she was scared.<\/p>\n

John, a manager whose surname is unknown, emailed Keller, telling him there had been a complaint about his behaviour and \u201cthe situation was being reviewed\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, despite emails back and forth, no formal warning was given.<\/p>\n

Cameron told Jeanne Waldron, the trust\u2019s liaison manager, and later the tribunal, that Keller\u2019s behaviour had continued.<\/p>\n

He would throw things around her area, stop unnecessarily near her cabin, run an outside tap attached to her cabin, and rev his car.<\/p>\n

She said she told Waldron she was scared and was sleeping with her light on. <\/p>\n

Early on, Cameron had Keller trespassed by police, but the response from Waldron was to offer Keller sympathy.<\/p>\n

Cameron was issued with an \u201canti-social behaviour\u201d notice because she was \u201cfurther aggravating tensions within the community\u201d. The notice said the tap by her cabin was \u201cavailable for others to use\u201d.<\/p>\n

By the end of November, Cameron told Waldron she would be moving out.<\/p>\n

She told NZME it took her some time to be able to leave, as her identification was stolen in the burglary.<\/p>\n

The decision said Keller \u201ccontinued to harass her by staring at her, playing music very loud, running around in front of her cabin when he did not have a reason to be there, [and] welding outside of her cabin\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"AnAn aerial photo of the Kawai Purapura retreat, which is no longer operating. Photo \/ Facebook.<\/p>\n

In May 2025, Keller was convicted in the District Court on a charge of intimidation.<\/p>\n

Judge Anna Fitzgibbon said, in her sentencing notes, that Keller went to Cameron\u2019s cabin because her outside light was bothering him.<\/p>\n

While Cameron turned it off when asked, Keller was already annoyed, and \u201cdeliberately acted in a way that he knew was likely to cause Ms Cameron reasonably to be frightened or intimidated\u201d.<\/p>\n

Police were called one night, and when they arrived, they said they found the tap running full force, with the ground wet and a light smashed and lying next to Cameron\u2019s cabin.<\/p>\n

Tribunal adjudicator Kate Henry said it was clear to her that Keller interfered with Cameron\u2019s \u201creasonable peace, comfort, and privacy\u201d at the premises, from the time of the burglary on October 7, 2023, until she left on December 23.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a calculated campaign of conduct that\u2019s only purpose could possibly be to intimidate and frighten the tenant.\u201d <\/p>\n

The adjudicator acknowledged that in boarding houses, preventing breaches to quiet enjoyment could be \u201cchallenging\u201d, especially where the living arrangements attracted \u201ceccentric tenants\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, had a \u201creasonable inquiry\u201d into Cameron\u2019s complaints taken place, the trust would have concluded in October that Keller was acting \u201cin breach of the House Rules and was causing a serious disruption to the tenant\u201d, and his tenancy could have been terminated.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the very least, Mr Keller should have been issued with a formal warning in October 2023 stating that if the harassment continued, his tenancy could be terminated immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

Henry said that \u201cto add insult to injury, the landlord victimised the tenant for making a complaint\u201d in issuing the anti-social behaviour notice.<\/p>\n

Cameron was awarded a 65% rent reduction for her loss of amenity, being $2503.15, and $3000 in compensation for the landlord having permitted harassment.<\/p>\n

She was also awarded $500 in exemplary damages for an unsafe deck attached to her cabin.<\/p>\n

Cameron was not given any of her claimed compensation for lost wages as Henry said there were other issues Cameron had, referred to in supporting documents from health professionals, which may have contributed to her inability to work. These included PTSD from the burglary, but not specifically the harassment by Keller.<\/p>\n

Dismissed claims over burglary liability<\/p>\n

Henry also did not find the trust liable for the burglary.<\/p>\n

Cameron claimed she was told the premises were safe and said tenants should have been screened for criminal records.<\/p>\n

However, Henry said, \u201cthe fact that a burglary has occurred at the premises in the past does not mean a premises is unsafe. I take judicial notice that there are very few areas in New Zealand that have not been subjected to burglaries or other criminal activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not accept that because the premises was a \u2018retreat\u2019 it was subject to a higher standard of care towards its tenants than other boarding houses. I also do not consider the landlord was under an obligation to screen tenants for a criminal record.\u201d <\/p>\n

Nor did Henry find that just because there was no \u201csecurity officer\u201d employed, the premises were \u201cunsafe\u201d.<\/p>\n

Tenant \u2018disgusted\u2019 by the outcome<\/p>\n

Cameron said the process, both in the Tenancy Tribunal and the District Court, left her \u201cvery worn down\u201d and she was \u201cdisgusted by the outcome of it all\u201d.<\/p>\n

She questions why there were people she understands had criminal records living at the retreat, without proper oversight or security measures in place.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I had known it was being utilised in that way, I never would have gone there because … without sounding awful, I have no experience of dealing with people with that kind of background, and I would not be seeking out a retreat for that reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

She felt there should be greater accountability for those who run \u201cretreats\u201d because what she had experienced felt to her like the \u201cwild west\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said people should \u201cmake sure that you know what you\u2019re walking into\u201d when attending retreats.<\/p>\n

The Prema Charitable Trust and trustee Jenny Cottingham were approached for comment, but never responded to messages. Nor did manager Jeanne Waldron.<\/p>\n

\"JennyJenny Cottingham, former director of Kawai Purapura in Albany, and a trustee of the Prema Charitable Trust which owned the retreat.<\/p>\n

Karl Keller, however, told NZME he denies intimidating or harassing Cameron, despite the District Court conviction, and says his actions were misinterpreted.<\/p>\n

He recalls Kawai Purapura as a \u201cf***ing cool place\u201d, where people were given a \u201csecond chance\u201d.<\/p>\n

He had gone there for the community, and to get away from bad influences.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were all there to heal and be happy and nice and caring for each other\u201d. <\/p>\n

Keller accepted he had behaved somewhat erratically, but felt let down by the justice system, which he thought had prejudged the situation.<\/p>\n

He said his behaviour was due to his own mental health, and he had been \u201cgoing through some stuff\u201d, but it had nothing to do with Cameron.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, yeah … I was banging and crashing around in my room,\u201d he said, but claimed it all happened in his own space.<\/p>\n

He said he had been using the outside tap to \u201cfill a fish tank\u201d.<\/p>\n

Keller further said his cabin was very close to Cameron\u2019s, given they were neighbours, and just because she could hear it all, didn\u2019t mean it was directed at her, or was an attempt to intimidate her.<\/p>\n

Hannah Bartlett is a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail, and before that was a radio reporter at Newstalk ZB.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to a Tenancy Tribunal decision, Cameron claimed the landlord, the trust, breached the Residential Tenancies Act by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,1975,1567,334,75013,153520,111,43,139,69,153519,153521,11588,1354],"class_list":["post-271390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-at","tag-awarded","tag-compensation","tag-harassment","tag-kawai","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-permitted","tag-purapura","tag-retreat","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}