Greetings Wānaka. A variety of weather lately.

Doesn’t seem to know what it wants to do, but one thing for sure with a bit of a nip in the air, winter is on its way.

With a bit of a dip into the old lolly bag of jobs attended by your blue team this week here’s some of what we’ve been up to.

There were a couple of crashes this week, one serious and another with a car knocking down a pedestrian. The serious crash occurred on one of the back roads in town and was a single vehicle. Four occupants were helicoptered to Dunedin and Christchurch hospitals. This is still under investigation.

The other occurred in a carpark where a vehicle reversed and struck a pedestrian, knocking them over and causing minor injuries. The moral here could be, be aware when backing out of your parking spaces and our back roads need to be treated with respect as they can still bite if attention is not being paid.

Drink driving was present again this week with a couple of drivers going to court. They've lost their licence for 28 days for high readings, while another received an infringement notice.

With the easing of the restrictions around numbers of people allowed into venues, and with our borders beginning to re-open it will be nice to see the local businesses recapture revenue, however this is again starting to come at a price with a noted increase in alcohol related disorder and other offences around town over the weekend.

Saturday night saw wilful damage to a parked vehicle because of an intoxicated male on Ardmore Street. This followed on from a few calls for disorderly behaviour and scuffles around the same area. During this, one officer also suffered a minor assault while attending.

All of these were alcohol related and I’m sorry to say the finger of blame was directed towards some members of the local rugby club by the various establishments.

With charges laid regarding the wilful damage and pending for assaulting police, please remember, have a good time but also know when to stop and look after your mates. If you are representing the town, do it with pride don’t get into a situation where you are going to bring shame to both the town and your representative club.

This week also saw us attend some family harm events where wrap around services are being provided to help those affected as well as mental health crisis interventions. Please remember if you, a friend, or family member are going through a period of mental health issues you can reach out for help. There are many services out there to help during times of crisis and the Mental Health Crisis Team can be reached on 0800 46 78 46.

So, stay safe, drive to the conditions, be considerate and courteous and have a great week Wānaka.