Just over two weeks ago, Julia Tontsch, 21, Julia Hamman, 20, Angela Biller, 19 and Anja Reindlmeier, 19, arrived in Auckland with big plans for their first trip to New Zealand.
The four, all from a town near Munich, met in Sydney while they were all working as au pairs.
"After we all finished our jobs, we decided to come to New Zealand for a month because none of us have ever been,'' Miss Tontsch said.
Their New Zealand experience started well with a three-day drive in their Jucy Rentals campervan around Cape Reinga but the night they got back to Auckland their trip quickly soured.
On January 18, the women parked their campervan on High St about 11pm for a toilet-stop and to get something to eat at McDonald's.
Miss Tontsch said they were away from their vehicle for 30 minutes at the most, but when they got back they found one of the windows had been smashed.
"We said, `Okay, it's just the window'. But then we thought, `Oh, no. All our backpacks and all of our clothes and shoes are gone too. There was almost nothing left,'' she said.
Two backpacks were taken which contained most of their clothes and two passports.
"We don't know why people took our things though _ there was nothing valuable in it. Nothing worth anything to anyone but us.''
Miss Tontsch called Jucy that night but was told there was nothing they could do and that although they had only used the campervan for four of the 22 days they could not get their money back.
The women also called the police, but were told nothing could be done.
For two days, the women wondered what to do, then Miss Tontsch reached out to the grandmother of the children who she looked after in Sydney.
The woman, who lives in Christchurch, told the Germans they were welcome to stay with her so they arranged to take a smaller Jucy car down to Christchurch for the remainder of their stay in New Zealand.
"It's so sad, because it's so beautiful here but our trip's been ruined,'' Miss Tontsch said.
The quartet, who were insured for lost passports, but not their missing clothes, no longer planned to travel around New Zealand after their experience. They are due to fly back to Australia on February 17.
Miss Tontsch said all they wanted was the return of their belongings and described the two Deuter backpacks as large, blue and grey tramping packs. She said one of the backpacks had a flower necklace on it.
The women have offered a reward to anyone who can give back their things.
"Maybe a big present,'' Miss Tontsch said.
- Amelia Wade
