The New Year's countdown celebrations in Honiara was trouble-free through to the early hours of 2009.
Solomon Times in a random visit around the city on New Year's eve night saw all night spots jam-packed with most clubs forced to close gates and doors at some point to avoid over-crowding.It was noted that despite police curfew for clubs to close down 2am, most nightclubs around Honiara exceeded time to a little after 3am.
Chief Superintendent, Nathan Ratu, had last week issued the curfew for clubs to close by 2am and no later than that.
But the extended hours in nightspots was welcomed by happy party-goers, with most saying celebrations around the city had been trouble-free, the first in a long time.
"I was actually surprised that although there was obviously a lot of drunk people around, there was no trouble in sight in most night spots," a lawyer, John Tebolo, told Solomon Times.
He said generally there's always fighting and other alcohol-related disorders "but this year's count down has been exceptional".
Louise Otana who was at the King Solomon Hotel's count down said although jam-packed, "everyone just had a really good time with no fighting at all".
She said the place was packed with drunkards but there was none of the usual disorderly ruckus happening both inside and outside the hotel.
"This is a good sign of our people being very civilised and having good attitude in celebrations," Ms. Otana said.
Solomon Times also noted high visibility of police officers patrolling around the city and checking nightspots right across the city, from as far as Kauvare club in west Honiara to Bula Bar in east Honiara.