A former Stoke resident has rejected claims that an annual Waitangi Day pub-crawl in London comprised "drunk Kiwis wreaking alcohol-fuelled havoc" – and police were this morning also hosing down the criticism.

Kiwi Dylan Clements has filed a complaint with New Zealand High Commissioner Derek Leask, saying the revellers' antics brought "great shame" on New Zealand.

Mr Clements said up to 1500 drunken New Zealanders took to the streets on Saturday (UK time) in a shameful display of debauchery.

But organiser Clint Heine, a former resident of Stoke, said he had met police and the high commissioner before the event.

He said Mr Clements had made his thoughts known before Waitangi Day and had a predetermined view.

"The police I spoke to said they would rather have 1000 drunk New Zealanders on the street than 100 drunken English."

Mr Heine said there would have likely been a small number of people vomiting and urinating in public, but he strongly denied the public had been intimidated.

He had received no other complaints about the event so far.

Westminster borough Inspector Bruce Middlemiss said the event was one that police "actually look forward to policing".

"Because the general demeanour of everybody is really amicable. We ask people to move on and stop doing stuff and they stop doing it.

"During the day there were no arrests that I'm aware of, no fights or specific recklessness," he said.

"There was urinating and showing of body parts and bits and pieces like that but when you've got nearly 4000 people on a pub crawl it's difficult to accommodate them when they need to go to the toilet."

The police received some minor complaints about litter and public urination, which was understandable as residents would have been confused by the event and the "New Zealand whirlwind" which passed through their town.

Mr Middlemiss said he would be meeting with local authorities to discuss providing more toilets and bins for next year's event.

Mr Clements, 28, a former Wellingtonian who works as a London travel agent, said he watched participants urinating and vomiting on famous religious landmarks, including Westminster Abbey and the historic Jewel Tower, and exposing themselves indecently on the street.

Others sculled alcohol on the Tube, intimidated Londoners and assaulted Korean tourists with snowballs during the marathon drinking session.

He said the crowd eventually gathered in Parliament Square to perform a mass shirtless haka.

Their antics brought New Zealand into disrepute and made a mockery of tourism campaigns designed to lure British travellers, he said.

Confused Londoners took to Twitter over the weekend to vent their feelings about the pub crawl.

"What was going on at Hyde Park today?" wrote James Somerfield.

"Looked like there had been a giant party, and there were crazy drunks everywhere," he said.

Red Lion Pub deputy manager Alasdair Wilson said the group were generally well behaved.

However, he was forced to close after one patron set a fire alarm off and another urinated in the hallway.

"When you get that number of people heavily drinking, you're going to get the odd one or two. The rest were really well behaved and in good humour."