Undie 500

Midway through jumping over a burning couch on Friday night, Matthew Scally had a horrible thought.

Police have charged 67 people in relation to the Undie 500 chaos in Dunedin at the weekend.

Dunedin's deputy mayor is calling for student loans to be tied to lawful behaviour following a third year of Undie 500 chaos in North Dunedin.

The timing of a visit to Dunedin yesterday by representatives of the Law Commission to discuss tightening of New Zealand's alcohol purchasing laws was coincidental, commission president Sir Geoffrey Palmer says.

With the predictability of spring following winter, the arrival of last weekend's Undie 500 heralded a slippage into chaos on the streets of North Dunedin.

New powers are needed to ban students from gathering in large numbers in the streets of North Dunedin, National list MP Michael Woodhouse believes.

Otago student and ODT Online reporter Emily Menkes gets the student take on the weekend disorder.

Students leaving Dunedin in a battered fleet of Undie 500 cars yesterday said they realised their rally had become a magnet for riots, but wanted it to continue anyway.

Dwindling supplies at Dunedin foodbanks have been bolstered with more than 1000 cans from participants in the Undie 500.

Police ran out of pepper spray trying to subdue a drunken mob on a second night of disorder in Dunedin following the arrival of the annual Undie 500 car rally in the city on Friday.

First year student and ODT Online reporter Emily Menkes was in the thick of another unfortunate night on Castle St.

Chaos reigned again in Castle St in Dunedin's student area last night as hundreds of drunken young people set fires, threw bottles at police and ripped out trees following the arrival of the Undie 500 rally in the city.

Advance vehicles in the Undie 500 have started to arrive in Oamaru, including two Toyota four wheel drives whose occupants were made to empty out liquor they had opened in the car.

The Undie 500 student car rally left Christchurch for Dunedin yesterday. This year, organisers are touting it as more community focused, following three years of ructions at the Dunedin end. Debbie Porteous looks at the history of New Zealand's most infamous rally.