Darren Neville Murray, 49, was subsequently charged with threatening to injure a person with intent to frighten them, and failing to comply with a direction of police, namely supplying a photo and fingerprints, in the resort on September 20.
After admitting the charges on behalf of Murray before Judge Michelle Duggan in the Queenstown District Court on Monday, defence counsel Paige Noorland described the incident as a "fall from grace" and one that was "completely out of character" for the defendant.
Murray and his family had travelled to the resort for their first holiday in four years, and had prepaid $1400 for the accommodation.
On arrival there was a "fallout" with the operator of the accommodation when he was asked to provide the personal information by text, in contrast with Booking.com policy and procedures.
He refused to provide the material and "unfortunately, he’s conducted himself in a poor manner", Ms Noorland said.
"He’s certainly not proud of it."
Judge Duggan said she struggled to understand how Murray "could have lost the plot so badly".
"I get that this would have all been really frustrating, but ending up threatening to hunt someone down and kill them is not something I can, in any way, understand by way of a reaction."
On the threatening language charge, he was ordered to pay $500 emotional harm reparation to the victim and was fined $200, and was fined a further $300 on the failure-to-comply charge.
