People turning up to say farewell to Dunedin's historic Captain Cook Tavern tonight are being warned to stay out of trouble or risk ''ruining it for everyone else'' and causing the pub to close early.
The student watering hole is set to close its doors tonight and with no-one stepping in to take over the lease, it could remain closed for good.
The owners of Cook Brothers Bars, which runs the historic pub, have been working with police and the Dunedin City Council to make sure everything runs smoothly tonight, but are prepared to close the pub early - as they did on Saturday - if things look like getting out of hand.
''We are only prepared to operate [tonight] if everyone's under control.
''Certainly, everybody arriving at once will probably lead to a similar scenario to last week, because you can't go from running a pub that had very few people coming through to suddenly one where half the city visits,'' owner Richard McLeod said.
If people turned up and ''played the fool'', they risked ''ruining it for everyone else'' and forcing the owners to close the pub early, he said.
''The encouragement would be just to expect that you can have a couple of beers, but just do it over the course of the day, as opposed to everyone arriving at once,'' he said.
Acting Inspector Mel Aitken said Dunedin police were prepared for the last night at the Cook.
''Dunedin police are aware that tomorrow night is the Captain Cook Tavern's last business night and are staffed accordingly.''
