Nelson Weekly Locally Owned and Operated
tuesday 14 June 2016
toy library mums get messy
2016 NPD TasmaN TroPhy
page 15
tasman find positives in loss
page 25
Husband of 40 years abused by wife ‘daily’
Balmoral Motel owners Kenji and Rachel Usui are one of many Nelson motel owners who are selling up. Photo: Andrew Board.
Motel owners cash in on tourist spike Andrew Board and Kate Russell Motel owners in Nelson are cashing in on a stellar summer tourist season and selling up to outside investors. More than a dozen motels are either on the market or have been recently sold. The latest to be sold include Palazzo, Harbourside, Cedar Grove, Carmel Court, Greens, Laughing Kiwi
and Riverlodge. The owner of another luxury motel that has recently been sold told Nelson Weekly that it is a great time to sell. He didn’t want to be named because he has yet to inform staff that the sale has been completed, but says Nelson “has that confidence”. “There is an under supply of housing stock, strong tourism sector and thanks to the likes
of Jetstar, domestic tourists are starting to find us,” he says. “Motels in Nelson would have had one of their busiest seasons.” Owner of Palazzo Motor Lodge on Rutherford St, Kiara Barnett, says she sold the motel last month. “Tourism as a whole has got better, and it’s a good industry to have a business in – I can
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An elderly Nelson man has had to leave his wife of 40 years after daily “emotional, verbal and physical abuse”, Nelson Weekly has learned. It is the latest elder abuse incident involving a family member, which Age Concern Nelson Tasman says make up more than three-quarters of elder abuse cases. About half of abusers are adult children. The man, who we will call “Mr Smith” to protect his identity, told Nelson Weekly via Age Concern that he was his wife’s fulltime carer and had felt responsible for continuing to look after her. But he had to start barricading himself into his bedroom at nights to avoid the abuse. He says the ongoing abuse was having an increasingly poor effect on his own mental and physical health. “I was highly anxious, nervous, lost a lot of confidence and was depressed. I had high blood pressure and had even taken up smoking again because of the stress. I felt like a prisoner in my
“
I felt like a prisoner in my own home. - “Mr Smith”.
own home,” he says. Mr Smith says his wife’s actions also spread to their friends who she would verbally abuse and make unfounded accusations against. One friend even went so far as to put out a restraining order against her. That was when Mr Smith sought help from Age Concern, which was able to help him move into a new house. This week is Elder Abuse Awareness Week and Age Concern Nelson Tasman’s Mal Drummond says he receives approximately 100 referrals of elder abuse and self-neglect every year, including financial, psychological and physical abuse. But he is hopeful for a change in
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