Everywhere the Otago Daily Times went this weekend, Cantabrians were in the thick of the action, whether it was performing in Circus Aotearoa, playing on beaches, relaxing in camp grounds or partying in the streets and bars.
Camp managers have reported many new bookings this year from Christchurch campers, forced out of their usual Nelson-Lakes holiday haunts because of bad weather.
With earthquakes continuing to rattle Christchurch right up to the last day of the year, and radio and television weather reports all touting Wanaka as "the place to be", the choice of holiday destination was simple.
Georgina Leask has been working this year as a "check-out chick" at the Amberley Four Square Supermarket but was looking forward to studying for her bachelor of social work degree this year at the Canterbury Polytechnic Institute of Technology. She and her friends had booked into the Wanaka Lake View Holiday Park and were planning to stay six nights.
It was their first "proper" visit to Wanaka - Georgina had visited as a child but her friends, Josh Sherry and Hazel Grainger, had never been - and the trio were vowing they would come back.
They loved the New Year's Eve festivities and had not gone to bed when the ODT discovered them eating breakfast at 6.15am yesterday on the waterfront.
"It is so beautiful. It was crazy last night. It was intense. There were so many people ... We did go [back to the camp] but we were not sleeping so we came back in," she said.
Earthquakes and bad weather elsewhere had prompted their decision to come south but they admitted they also wanted to "get rowdy and party".
They hoped this year would be trouble-free, with Mr Sherry, a refrigeration apprentice, also keen to avoid accidents, after breaking his wrist in March and then injuring his arm after he was hit by a car at Labour Weekend.
A group of 15 teenagers sunbathing in front of the Lake Wanaka jetty on New Year's Eve said they were thrilled to be taking a break from Christchurch, particularly when they heard more aftershocks had occurred that day.
Similarly, Harry Blackburn (14) of Christchurch, was enjoying making sandcastles with his young Milton cousin on the beach, and had put earthquakes out of his mind, for now.
