( et NON Lalie n'est pas en profonde dépression, comme pourrait le faire croire cette photo!)
Winter too tough for train 
Tourists stranded after van repossessed
ASHLEIGH STEWART AND CAROLINE KING
HAPPIER TIMES: French tourist Thomas Retacchi with the van he and his partner bought in Auckland that was later repossessed by a credit card company.
KIRK HARGREAVES/Fairfax NZ
EULALIE BESCH: "I thought I'd wake up and find it's not true. We just don't believe what happened."
New Zealand
A French couple on holiday in New Zealand had to spend the night on the street after they lost their transport, accommodation and return flights home when their van was seized in Christchurch.
Eulalie Besch and Thomas Retacchi arrived in New Zealand in February and had planned a one-year holiday travelling around the country.
They purchased a van from the Backpackers Car Market in Auckland, and traversed down the North Island and across Cook Strait to Christchurch where they were set to see the sights of the South Island.
However, their journey came to an abrupt end last Tuesday when they were followed while driving around Christchurch and were confronted by a man acting for a credit company.
The man told them the van had money owing on it from a previous owner and repossessed it on the spot, leaving them stranded, homeless and $4000 out of pocket.
Besch and Retacchi went to the police, who told them the credit company was completely within its legal rights to take the vehicle.
Besch said it was like a ''bad dream''.
''I had to pinch myself. I thought I'd wake up and find its not true. We just don't believe what happened.''
Besch said her partner, Retacchi, who speaks very little English and was by himself when the van was repossessed, ''didn't understand'' what was happening when a vehicle blocked him off down a no-exit street.
He only managed to grab a handful of their belongings before it was towed. The rest remained in the van.
That night, with no van and not able to find affordable accommodation, they were forced to sleep outside.
''Shell-shocked'' at the bizarre turn of events, the couple contacted the Community Law Centre, where they were fortunate to meet a French-speaking volunteer, lawyer David Small.
He had to reluctantly tell the couple there was ''little by way of legal remedy open to them''.
''If the vehicle was used as security over a loan, and payments weren't made, then the people who have security maintain it until the payment is given - even if the car has changed hands,'' he said.
He was "amazed" there was no law that protected them and said "it just seems like a bizarre way for a country to operate".
"They're just shell-shocked, they don't know quite what to do now.
''They just said they want to go home now, they're so discouraged,'' Small said.
''It's just left a really sour taste in their mouths. They also feel that they need to go and write on websites and warn other tourists that this stuff can happen here.''
Besch said they now had no way to continue with their travel plans around the South Island.
''It's a shame,'' she said.
The couple are trying to save the money required for their flight home, which would have been funded by selling the van.
In the meantime they have struck up a deal with a Christchurch backpackers, and were working for them in exchange for accommodation.
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