Queenstown's community guides may be walking the streets from 8pm until 5am from next week in the latest experiment with effectiveness during the initiative's three-month trial.
Queenstown Lakes District Council's Curbing Alcohol Related Violence (Carv) officer Merv Aoake said the idea of the four community guides working split shifts would be discussed when Carv stakeholders, including police, ACC, social services, Southland District Health Board and the Alcohol Advisory Council (Alac), met on Wednesday.
Two guides would tour the central business district from 8pm to 1am, and the other pair would walk the CBD from midnight to 5am, with an overlap of one hour, from Thursdays to Saturdays.
The guides were working 9pm to 2am or 3am on those days last week and this week.
They had been on duty later, from 11pm to 4am, when the initiative began on June 27.
"It's always been part of the trial to look at a whole lot of variables, such as starting earlier or later in the evening, to have an upside at the end," Mr Aoake said.
"We're looking at ways to evaluate effectiveness. Anecdotally, the guides have been very, very positively received by people."
Mr Aoake said while the guides had not witnessed drunken teenagers fighting, as reported after the winter festival's Mardi Gras night, they expected an increase in antisocial behaviour as more visitors arrived for the ski season.
Mr Aoake said the guides were seeing fewer underage drinkers around town, "and maybe that's because they see us".
"It's hard to tell sometimes how old they are and if they are underage as they're in their winter gear and it's at night."
The guides originally patrolled the CBD down to Lake Esplanade and up Brecon St.
Mr Aoake said they were now also having a periodical presence along Robins Rd towards Pinewood and Weavers lodges, plus Hoteps Rise, the skate park and Queenstown Gardens in consideration of late-finishing workers.
There were no regular trouble spots as different parts of Queenstown were busier at certain times and days than others, he said.
The guides' mandate was still to promote safety in the centre of town, reduce alcohol-related crime and give directions and information, as well as act as extra eyes and ears for the police and other services and agencies.
