Tūrangi Police: Making the right choices in the festive season

Tongariro River rafting action from last weekend's Tūrangi Blue Light trip. Photo / Rafting New Zealand

Kia ora koutou. Christmas is fast approaching again and so I'd like to talk to you this week about making good choices at this time of year, whether it's around drink-driving, domestic violence or even just storing your Christmas gifts somewhere out of sight.

Avoiding a lot of heartache, stress, a brush with the law or potentially even a devastating accident can come down to the choices you make. As an example, last weekend we came across a couple of drivers who had made the very poor choice to drive after having a drink or two and now will be paying the price by losing their licences.

At this time of the year there are a lot of work functions and social gatherings like barbecues and parties. Before you even go out to a function, have a plan about how you're going to get home and maybe even a Plan B, so that when it's time to leave, you've got someone who'll pick you up, or an arrangement to walk back to your place and you're not tempted to get behind the wheel.

Make the right choices around relationships as well. This time of year can really see an increase in family harm, with stress at work, financial pressure and problems at home all compounding.

Think ahead about how you can avoid those situations getting out of control. Do you need to call someone to support you, whether family or one of our town's services if things are getting stressful at home? Have a plan with your partner that if you need to get away for some time out by yourself, you can do that.

There were around 80 people on the Tūrangi Blue Light rafting trip on the Tongariro River with Rafting New Zealand last Saturday. Photo / Supplied

Make the right choices with your kids. Have things in place for them to do, or a plan of things you are going to do with them while school is out. Know where your kids are going and who they are with.

Over the upcoming weeks expect to see some police operations starting and more staff around, including on the roads and in our lakeshore settlements and outlying areas. We'll be focusing on reassurance, education but also a bit of enforcement where needed around things like liquor bans.

The Frew family enjoyed the Turangi Blue Light rafting trip. Back row from left: Jai Frew, Nicole Robinson, Tigerlily Frew, Michael Frew. Front row: Asia Frew, Te Owai Boyce. Photo / Supplied

Finally, we had an awesome Tūrangi Blue Light whānau fun rafting trip on the Tongariro River last Saturday. The emphasis this time was on getting our younger tamariki along on this grade two trip suitable for children from three upwards.

We had a really successful day with about 80 people turning up to fill 12 boats. There was one family I spoke to who said the Blue Light trip enabled them to take the whole family out on the river and create some special memories together and it's great they were able to do that.

Sergeant Te Reipa Morunga, Tūrangi Police. Photo / File

A huge thank you to Luke and Pianika Boddington from Rafting New Zealand and their team for an excellent day. They gave us a generous discount and together with our other sponsors BayTrust we were able to do the trip for $20 per person. Afterwards, we carried on to the Turtle Pools for a pool party with a few more of our local rangatahi coming along to join the fun.

Kia pai tō wiki, Te Reipa.