Big nights bar-hopping on Christchurch's The Strip have been brought to life in a digital collection of photographs, sparking memories of hen's parties, hot dogs and the odd hangover.
Published online for the first time, the photos spotlight the city's lively turn of the millennium party scene, without a smartphone or selfie in sight.
For the man behind the camera, documentary photographer Anthony McKee, the shots were a throwback to a simpler time.
"It was just a bunch of people having a good night out. There were the happy people, the lonely people, the drunk people. One beautiful shot is of a group of friends going out on a hen's night - the bride-to-be already looks like she's had one too many," he said.
"I think there's a little bit of innocence about what you see there, that's really beautiful. It does hark back to perhaps a simpler era for most of us when we weren't too stressed about social media, what people were saying about us, worried about our image so much."
Punters spilled into the street every Friday and Saturday night, joining slow-moving queues for drinks and dancing.
Most shots were captured between the hours of 10pm and 2am, with the permission of bar managers, so long as he did not photograph any fights.
"During the day they were really decent restaurants and popular places to dine but at night, from about 10pm onwards, they just turned into loud, seething masses of people dancing and getting drunk," he said.
The photos were recently digitised and published in the Christchurch City Libraries' Canterbury Stories collection, 25 years after they were first exhibited at the Centre of Contemporary Art.
Striking in its complexity, one of McKee's favourite nightlife photos was simply titled "People outside a bar on The Strip".
"I love how at first glance you almost think that woman on the right of the frame is reaching out to that male walking past," he said.
"In the left of the frame we also have the embracing couple, but then there is the male with his eyes closed, possibly wishing he was home already or just trying to ignore the PDA (public display of affection) by his friends."
While some people partied with mates, others looked for soul mates.
Another of McKee's favourites was "Kissing inside a bar" - an intimate portrait of three couples cheek to cheek.
"I've always liked that image. I just like the moment, the light. It's quite magical," he said.
"Each generation tends to live in a bit of a bubble. They're fairly introspective and they perhaps would never consider that their parents would go out on the piss and have a fun night out with their friends, perhaps end up doing a haka in the street," he said.
"All the silly stuff, the social stuff, the fun stuff, that's important to reveal to future generations. Any good documentary photography should reveal to society where the past has been."
"No-one is hunched over a phone, no-one's taking selfies or making calls. People seem to be interacting with each other on a personal level," he said.
"There's a sense of realism, it's not fake. Most people aren't posing for the camera, they're just caught in the moment."
Among the veils and angel wings, a photo of a man wearing an "ungainly" shower costume stood out, Daisley said.
"You immediately start to wonder, how did he manage to manoeuvre around crowded bars wearing that? And who is he? Why was he dressed as a shower? What was his story, did he have a good night out?"
The Strip was destroyed in Christchurch's deadly 2011 earthquake, then restored as riverfront precinct The Terrace.
Daisley said popular night-spots had been relegated to a kind of "mythological past" by a younger generation that had no pre-quake memory of the inner-city.
"It's important to preserve as much as we can of the city's lost heritage now, while it's still in living memory, so that future generations can know what our lives were like before the earthquakes and what we lost," he said.
"We should be doing more to preserve photography collections, but we should also be doing more to sponsor documentary projects," he said.
"Everyone has a camera on their phone now, and as a society we are taking millions of photos every year. But in between the selfies and the food photos, and the pretty sunset photos, how many photos really tell the stories about what is happening in New Zealand society, be it folks enjoying a night out or people in their work and home environments?"
"Most people don't value good documentary photography until two or three decades after that fact when they get to look back and realise what life was like years ago, that's when they start to value good doco photography."
