Kia ora Wānaka,

We have kept ourselves busy at the Wānaka Police Station over the past couple of weeks.

A repeat offender was apprehended last Friday (September 23) after taking off without paying for petrol nine times around Otago and Canterbury, including instances in Wānaka.

We all know it’s expensive, but that doesn’t provide an excuse. They will have the matter dealt with in court.

Alcohol played a major role in our weekend deployment. A disturbance at one of our bars on Friday night saw three people assaulted by one patron. While not located at the time, the person responsible is

known and will be held to account in the coming days.

Friday night saw two drink drivers apprehended at very high readings. Both came to our attention because of their manner of driving including reports from the public, which reinforces that intoxication makes you a worse driver. They will be losing their licences for an extended period.

The previous weekend had more alcohol-fuelled issues which had us busy at our bars. One patron was removed multiple times from a bar but failed to get the message, so ended up being very unwillingly escorted out by police. A reminder to the public not to intervene when police are undertaking an arrest. Our job is challenging enough without being given advice from bystanders and those who obstruct the process will be the next into the police vehicle.

There was a noticeable increase in the consumption of alcohol on the streets over that weekend too, in breach of the town’s liquor ban. Along with the liquor ban, two of the drinkers located were 16 years old and their parents were summoned to collect their kids from the street. In total, six formal warnings were issued for breaches of our alcohol laws.

Related: Councillors approve alcohol bans by tight margin

There were a lot of complaints regarding the road works at Anderson Road interacting with the road works on State Highway six and causing traffic armageddon. While Wānaka did grind to a halt for half a day, I understand improvements have been made. Sad to see some of the risky manoeuvres made by people trying to avoid the traffic.

Related: ‘Insane’ traffic jam leads to new traffic management plan

In what is probably the most concerning incident of the week, police attempted to stop a van in the early hours of the morning, but it failed to stop and crashed into a fence a short time later. Sadly, the driver and four passengers were all 14-15 years old and in a van that only had three seats, and all fled from the scene. In the police recipe book for tragedies, this one is in chapter one. We only hope that this is a valuable lesson learned only once for these kids.

Finally, on the crime front, a skateboard was stolen from inside a hostel after a boozy night out. The person was later apprehended and acknowledged that alcohol was the driver of this poor decision.

Sadly, the skateboard has not been seen since.

On our roads, we had some drivers who didn’t quite manage to colour between the lines and found themselves off the road. The wet weather was a factor in one crash on Cardrona Valley Road, and there was a two-vehicle crash on Cardrona Ski Resort road which resulted in injuries to one of the drivers. We hope there is a speedy recovery there.

Stay safe out there Wānaka.