A man who shot a Victorian surfer dead while he was sleeping in the back of a campervan in a coastal New Zealand town has pleaded guilty to murder, bringing some relief to his devastated family.
Hamilton man Mark Ronald Garson, 24, admitted to killing Sean McKinnon, 33, and then threatening to kill Mr McKinnon's Canadian girlfriend.
Mr McKinnon was sleeping in his campervan, which was parked in the coastal town of Raglan, alongside his girlfriend Bianca Buckley when he was shot several times in August last year.
Ms Buckley managed to escape on foot and ran for several kilometres before she made it to a house to ask for help.
Garson fled in the couple's van and dumped it 80 kilometres away with Mr McKinnon's body inside.
Garson pleaded not guilty to Mr McKinnon's murder late last year, but changed his plea to guilty on Wednesday in Hamilton's High Court.
Mr McKinnon's sister, Emmeline McKinnon, said it was an important day for the family.
"It was that moment that I've just been waiting to hear, and [now] that's been said and it's been cemented in and we don't have to face a trial … I'm relieved for all of us," Ms McKinnon told the ABC.
"Being able to tell Mum that the person who murdered Sean has admitted their actions — that's been important for her as well, so that was good."
Ms McKinnon and three of her siblings watched the plea via video link from their home near Warrnambool, in south-west Victoria.
She said the past year had been extremely difficult.
"You don't get to choose the way grief affects you as a person," she said.
"For a long time there every day when you wake up, the first thing you're reminded of is that your brother's not coming home and it's the last thing on your mind when you go to bed.
"You can't control that you're crying when you're paying for petrol … and not really understanding when it's going to stop affecting you that way."
Mr McKinnon had been in New Zealand to visit his girlfriend, who was working there at the time.
Until Tuesday, Garson's name was subject to a non-publication order, due to his mental health.
Ms McKinnon said while it was hard to accept a future without her younger brother being around, it was also difficult to cherish the past.
"You look at photographs of him as a small child and you know what lay in front of his life for him — and that's very, very hard to accept," she said.
"We're a close family and it's been hard to balance out how much he meant to us and the meaningless circumstances around how he died, given he was such a gentle, loving, caring brother and man.
"They're the hardest [things to accept], that these things happened to Sean and none of us were there to comfort him in his final moments."
Members of the McKinnon family plan to travel to New Zealand for Garson's sentencing on December 9.
