An "act of kindness" by an Otago policeman has earned praise from a recent Australian visitor involved in a car crash last month.
After visiting Christchurch, Akaroa, Queenstown and Arrowtown, Gold Coast resident Ras Manickan was passing through Lawrence on his way to Dunedin when his car skidded on a gravel road and collided with an oncoming car.
Senior Constable Robert Wallace was called to the scene.
After tending to paperwork, the officer drove Mr Manickan to a nearby shop so he could top-up his mobile phone, then to the local garage to retrieve his suitcase from his wrecked car.
Snr Const Wallace then took Mr Manickan to the bus station.
However, with the next bus more than six hours away, Mr Manickan decided to "leave Dunedin for the next time".
"To my amazement [Snr Const Wallace] looked at me and said `I am not going to let this spoil your holidays nor do I want you to feel let down'."
And with that, he was driven in a police car to Dunedin and received a complimentary tour.
"He made . . . the rest of my holidays a very pleasant one . . . a New Zealand police officer's act of kindness."
Snr Const Wallace said while he had issued "some infringements" to his passenger, his job as a police officer did not end there.
"He hadn't been to New Zealand before and the end result was that he went back to Dunedin for a second visit," he said.
