On New Year's Day police made more than 150 arrests in party hotspots, including 35 around Mt Maunganui, 29 in Nelson and 35 in Wellington.
The most high profile was the stabbing of Luke Brown, 24, in Napier. His mother Emma has described the people who attacked her son, allegedly gang affiliates angry he was wearing a rival gang's red colours, as "gutless low-lifes".
Bay of Plenty emergency medicine clinical director Derek Sage said New Year's Eve was the busiest day of the year.
Tauranga Hospital staff reported twice as many admissions as normal, with 172 people in the emergency department.
Sage estimated about half of patients' injuries were alcohol or violence related. "A lot of it is blunt trauma, blows to the heads," he said. "Facial injuries, fractured jaws, facial bones, lips that are lacerated, missing teeth. We also get people who are so drunk they have fallen through glass tables and doors. Fairly nasty wounds."
He had little sympathy. "As far as I'm concerned, you contributed to your own demise. You're drunk in charge of your body and you run into someone who is also full of alcohol, and they whack you in the jaw and break it. Who is at fault?"
He had seen the same problems in hospitals in Britain.
