Nali Lee assaulted her ex-boyfriend in February. In July she got violent again

Nali Lee had been drinking in central Dunedin for four hours when she realised her dog was missing. Staff at Albar had secured it and Lee thanked them by biting the barman.

A woman who attacked her ex-boyfriend with nutmeg then bit a bartender while on bail says she is embarrassed by her behaviour.

Nali Lee, 27, originally came before the Dunedin District Court after pleading guilty to assault and assault with a weapon following the break-up with her partner in Queenstown.

The court heard Lee was planning an application for a discharge without conviction but the chance of emerging from the fiasco with a clean record were abruptly ended after a drinking session on July 20.

The woman had been boozing in central Dunedin for nearly four hours when she realised her dog had gone missing.

Lee found the dog down the road at Albar where bar staff were looking after it in the cellar.

She barged past a barman to grab her pooch and on her way back past him, bit him on the left shoulder, leaving "bruising and teeth marks".

When police arrived, they found the defendant arguing with another woman.

Her anger was quickly directed at officers before she fell over and was arrested.

Lee later said she could not remember the assault.

"I know I shouldn't have bit that guy but I just did," she said.

Lee pleaded guilty to injuring with reckless disregard and disorderly behaviour and the court heard it was not her first violent outburst this year.

The woman had dated a Queenstown man for several months before the couple broke up on February 2.

She turned up at her ex-partner's caravan at 11pm on February 7 while the victim was asleep and announced her arrival with a flurry of punches to his face.

Lee then grabbed a nearby spice packet and threw nutmeg into the man's "eye area".

Then the punches continued.

The victim fled to a friend's home. The defendant stood outside shouting at him to "man up".

When that proved fruitless, she retrieved a golf club and waited for her ex-boyfriend in the darkness.

Hearing a commotion, another man — known to both parties — wandered over with a torch to find out what was going on.

Lee mistook him for her former boyfriend.

"Are you scared, you coward?" she shouted, before striking him in the arm.

Defence counsel Anne Stevens QC stressed Lee had some "terrible misfortune in her life, none of which was of her own making".

She said the defendant was highly educated.

Lee addressed the court and apologised for what she had done.

"Looking back at my behaviour it's not something I can imagine doing again," she told Judge John Macdonald.

"It's embarrassing. I'm very sorry. I'm looking forward to my future being more stable."

Lee was sentenced to nine months' supervision and ordered to pay $1500 to her victims.