(file photo) Photo: Aida Koric / 123rf
Emergency services at summer hot spots are preparing for an influx of rowdy visitors on New Year's Eve.
As Aucklanders prepared to flock to beachside towns on the Coromandel Peninsula including Whangamata, Whitianga and Tairua, police were doing the same.
"We bring extra police into our areas because of the massive increase in population for those limited times through the holiday period," Eastern Waikato area commander Mike Henwood explained.
"[The officers] mostly come from elsewhere in the Waikato region and Auckland, and we're quite flexible in terms of where they go. Crowds change and where's popular changes from year to year, so we move our staff to where the need is."
The typically serene towns would be overrun with visitors, and they weren't all coming for a quiet getaway.
"When you have a town where the population increases significantly [over summer] it obviously changes the lifestyle there a bit," Inspector Henwood said.
"A lot of people's idyllic beach lifestyle is definitely compromised for a period... That sort of comes with the territory."
He said New Year's parties often involved heavy drinking.
"For young people, typically the behaviour is they've been looking forward to this for quite some time, there's a lot of peer pressure around it particularly to drink," he said.
"We're talking about people that perhaps shouldn't be drinking alcohol but they've had it supplied to them."
The conditions made overconsumption a serious issue.
"Often very hot temperatures and not a lot of food consumed, people getting quite intoxicated and being in a place they're not familiar with. Losing friends, not having a plan to get home," he said.
"Have that plan of how you're going to get home because a lot of these places don't have taxis or public transport."
Hato Hone St John said it is also sending extra staff to popular summer locations.
"We see a lot of alcohol intoxication and injuries as a result of falls [at parties], which make up about 11 percent of our callouts over that period," St John's Auckland district operations manager Andy Everiss said.
"We also see a lot of drug intoxication as well, and that causes a concern for us because these people will often present as severely dehydrated or unconscious."
Everiss said dehydration was a serious risk.
"Dehydration is huge, particularly in New Zealand we are more at risk of sunburn and exposure to the sun so you need to take precautions and stay out of the sun," he said.
"Really important that you stay hydrated... [If you're drinking] make sure you have a decent meal beforehand and a glass of water between each drink."
Everiss stressed that ambulance staff would not report patients to police if they had taken an illegal substance.
"Please just be honest with our team, we're not there to judge at all. We're only there to care for the community so please be honest."
Police Inspector Mike Henwood said it was rare for police to get involved in a party, but that would change if attendees spilled into the streets.
"Getting intoxicated on private property, that's fine, but when they go wandering often the disorder and assaults and sexual assaults that come from that... People intoxicated wandering streets they're not familiar with, it can cause issues," he said.
"Laws, things like liquor bans, they apply 365 days a year. They don't get temporarily suspended because you want to enjoy New Year's Eve."
He urged visitors not to get carried away.
"[The] key thing is having fun for everybody. As soon as your activities impact on someone else's holiday that's not okay, and if it's illegal that's where police get involved."
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