Business Paihia's midnight fireworks show as seen from Russell. Photo / Stephen Western
Business Paihia's midnight fireworks show as seen from Russell. Photo / Stephen Western
Thousands welcomed in the new decade in largely trouble-free New Year celebrations around the north, with the Far North's top cop describing Paihia's festivities as the best he'd seen.
In the Bay of Islands revellers lined the waterfront to watch a midnight fireworks show launched from a barge moored betweenRussell and Paihia.
Crowds were thinner than usual early in the night and dominated by families and tourists, but swelled just before midnight until almost every vantage point along the Paihia foreshore was taken.
Even then, however, there was no repeat of the usual post-midnight disorder and fighting along Marsden Rd.
Claims of a serious assault later in the night could not be confirmed at edition time yesterday. Six people were arrested in Paihia for disorderly behaviour with no incidents elsewhere in Northland, according to a police spokeswoman.
Police did not set up a base in Paihia Memorial Hall this year, instead dispatching the few troublemakers to the Kaikohe police cells as soon as they were arrested.
Fourteen-year-old Bree Vreede, right, lends a hand at a free sausage sizzle put on by members of Paihia Baptist Church. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Much of the banter between revellers and police was good-natured and there were fewer instances of police seizing and tipping out alcohol in Paihia's liquor ban area.
Entertainment in the lead-up to the midnight countdown included circus performances on the Village Green and Horotutu Park, and a sell-out concert by Kiwi band The Feelers at Zane Grey's on the Paihia waterfront.
As in previous years members of Paihia Baptist Church put on a free sausage sizzle on the Village Green, both as a public outreach and to help counter alcohol consumption.
Thousands lined the waterfront in the Bay of Islands to watch a midnight fireworks show launched from a barge moored between Paihia and Russell. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Mid and Far North police area commander Inspector Riki Whiu said it was probably the best New Year's Eve to date in Paihia.
''There's been a return to a real whānau atmosphere, and we have to mihi to our people for that. We have had a lot of families, tamariki and mokopuna come into the centre, and at this stage (1am on Wednesday) it has been very successful.''
Whiu put the change down to ''clear messaging'' in the week leading up to New Year's Eve with officers visiting campgrounds — one of which hosted up to 1000 mostly young Aucklanders — to set expectations along with high police visibility on the night to make sure people felt safe.
Freestyle rapper Tihei Harawira, a New Year's Eve fixture in Paihia, takes a break from busking with Cellini's cafe owner Richard Holt. Photo / Peter de Graaf
''So we're not just turning up on the day to try to police whatever turns up on the day.''
There had also been a change in public attitudes, Whiu said.
''There's been a shift of mindset around what these events should be instead of what they were previously, when they were just a free-for-all for any drunk clown or mischief maker.''
No major problems on New Year's Eve were reported in Northland by police.
The midnight fireworks show as seen from Russell. Photo / Stephen Western
