Drunken revellers leave island mess

Furious Wanaka residents want the unknown organisers of an illegal event on Wanaka’s Ruby Island to pay for damage and debris after Thursday’s boozy session.

There have been calls for a liquor ban on the island, making it a smokefree reserve and installing an island warden.

Ruby Island Management Committee co-ordinator Jude Battson was unaware of the party until yesterday and says she would gladly move on ‘‘drunken tossers’’.

‘‘You are not welcome. If you think drinking is associated with water and the island, it is not . . . I am more than willing to confront them. Watch out,’’ Battson said.

She is now seriously considering putting a warden on the island from next year, for the two-week peak summer season.

Wanaka’s emergency services have labelled the event as a disaster waiting to happen, after escorting more than 500 people from the island to shore and extinguishing a fire, believed started by a discarded cigarette.

Police and harbourmasters could not confirm exactly who organised the event.

Mackley Lindsey participated in the day and said in a Facebook message ‘‘it was a great day and with a little bit more organising could be perfect’’.

‘‘The fire was unfortunate but it only takes one dickhead to ruin it i guess. Good luck with your story and please try put some positivity into it.’’

Lindsey said he did not know who the organisers were. ’’Hopefully one of the organisers can give a better insight,’’ he said.

A much smaller Ruby Island drinking session last year is said to have gone under the radar.

The Ruby Swim co-organisers Eddie Spearing and Jamie Norman swam around the island at 6.45am yesterday morning and reported the debris.

‘‘The place is a bloody mess,’’ Spearing said on Facebook.

There were abandoned inflatables and debris at Waterfall Creek and on the island, as well under the water where it was too deep to get at.

Spearing said he and his friends could not understand why people had not cleaned up.

Wanaka Community Board deputy chairman Quentin Smith put in a request for service for the Queenstown Lakes District Council yesterday.

Harbourmasters Marty Black and Craig Blake were to assess the damage yesterday afternoon.

Smith described the Ruby Island situation as ‘‘appalling’’ and suggested volunteer divers would be needed to help clean up. The organisers should foot the bill, Smith said.

As soon as the board reconvened in 2017 he would suggest a liquor ban for the island.

Battson has volunteered on Ruby Island for 19 years and said the debris ‘‘breaks my heart’’.

‘‘None of these people ever turn up to help,’’ she said.

Just one week earlier, she and volunteers had set up the island’s picnic areas and single long drop toilet for public use.

‘‘I can only imagine the state of the toilet,’’ she said.

Ruby Island’s management committee gets just $5000 from the council each year. Volunteers do the maintenance and planting. – Fairfax NZ