No reply to trip refund requests

Pupils from these schools were supposed to have been going overseas, but the money paid out for...
Pupils from these schools were supposed to have been going overseas, but the money paid out for the trips has not been returned. PHOTOS: ODT FILES
Representatives of a tour group that has not refunded Otago families for cancelled education trips are proving difficult to find.

An 0800 phone number refers people to an Australian email address that has been disabled.

A New Zealand email address on the Companies Office website has also been disabled.

Antipodeans Abroad has operated for almost 30 years in New Zealand and Australia, running trips for high school pupils and university students to such places as Borneo, Peru, Sri Lanka and Tanzania.

However, the company has been in a dispute with its insurer and went into liquidation in Australia this month.

That has left some Otago high school pupils and their parents fearing they may not get back thousands of dollars they plunged into cancelled trips.

About 20 pupils from Dunedin’s Kavanagh College would have travelled to Cambodia this month, but the Covid-19 pandemic scuppered those plans.

The bill for each pupil is understood to be more than $7000.

Many pupils had put a lot of time and effort into fundraising and part-time jobs to cover the cost.

About 30 pupils from Taieri College, Mosgiel, had planned to travel to Nepal in April next year.

They had already paid a significant portion of what the trip would have cost.

The total bill across both colleges is understood to comfortably exceed $200,000.

Insurer 360 Accident and Health has refused to pay up for cancelled trips, 7News in Australia reported.

Antipodeans Abroad had started court proceedings against its insurer but it was unclear whether that would continue to be pursued after the liquidation.

Emails from the Otago Daily Times to liquidators Hall Chadwick and an Antipodeans Abroad address for media inquiries have gone unanswered in the past two days.

Parents of pupils at Taieri College are meeting tonight to discuss their options.

grant.miller@odt.co.nz

 

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