Welcome to 2022 and hopefully a year with more freedoms than the last!

We had a very busy period over the past week, when Wānaka swells to a small city and we get some colleagues from Dunedin to join our team.

Rhythm and Alps brought extra fun for Wānaka Police, with seven staff stationed out there for the event hosting 10000 visitors. There were four arrests and many illicit substances seized during, and unfortunately several investigations underway in relation to violence.

We have a number of complaints regarding the behaviour of taxis which were overcharging customers cards at the end of their journeys. These taxis are not from Wānaka and police stopped many of these operators to ensure they were within regulations. Investigations are ongoing relating to the overcharging.

In the evenings there was an ongoing trend of unsupervised young people both intoxicated and consuming alcohol in town. There were countless seizures of alcohol from youths as young as 13 and a raft of infringements issued. Senior Constable Vink ran his alternative resolution programme again, hosting some of these young drinkers the following mornings, where essays regarding alcohol were completed, in lieu of a fine.

A sad trend was that parents, when spoken to about their youths, had been told a completely different story as to what they were up to. Most of the alcohol has been supplied by parents but they had been too trusting on where and when it was consumed.

Police were present on the waterfront at night this week to keep our young people safe. Despite no council events this year, this was a massive area of congregation, and while the crowd was generally positive, there were some unwanted aggressors.

On Thursday (December 30) a 20-year-old male chose to demonstrate his parkour expertise by mounting an occupied police car. He spent some time at the police station.

On New Year's Eve a 19-year-old male was arrested for two serious assaults which left their young victims with injuries. The offender was from out of town, as were both of the victims.

There were other arrests that night in relation to public disorder.

In relation to our roads, there were some poor outcomes. During the week there were 20 drink drivers intercepted, three vehicles impounded and numerous young drivers stopped while breaching their licence conditions. One of the intoxicated drivers was driving in excess of 145km/h from Rhythm and Alps at 2am. Another lost control on Mt Iron Drive travelling at a speed closer to 100km/h in a 40km/h area.

With the increased population we were always going to see increases, but this is not a positive trend.

Police wish to thank the public for their reports of dangerous driving through *555. Several high level drink drivers were apprehended across the Wānaka and Queenstown area as a result of calls from the public.

Stay safe and enjoy the remainder of the holiday period.