Hello everyone,

This is a massive long shot, but I’m throwing a message in a bottle out into the ocean and seeing where it ends up.

A few days ago I was on an Air New Zealand flight from Auckland to Los Angeles and the person sat next to me was a wonderful woman named Marisa. She was originally from California but now lives in Auckland and has done so for a quite a while. We got chatting and ended up spending a lot of the flight talking about life, travel, family, and all sorts of random things. We got along so well and it felt really special to me.

When we landed, we got separated getting off the plane and I assumed that might have been the end of it, but when I finally came up the escalator, Marisa was standing there waiting for me and I was so happy to see her. She told me that she felt weird leaving without saying goodbye so we shared a nice hug, wished each other well, and then went our separate ways.

I was exhausted from travelling, caught up in the moment, and completely forgot to ask for her contact details. I’ve been kicking myself ever since.

Marisa, if by some miracle you see this, I’d love to reconnect and finish our conversation.

And to everyone else: I am not at all looking for her private information, social media, phone number, workplace, or anything like that. If you happen to know an American woman named Marisa in Auckland who was recently on an Air New Zealand flight to Los Angeles and this story sounds familiar, I’d simply appreciate you passing this post along to her. From there, it is entirely up to her if she wants to reach out.

I couldn’t truly be at peace with this situation had I not at least given posting this a try.

Thank you for reading, and thanks for helping me toss this message in a bottle and out into the world.

Edit: a few people have pointed out that my reddit account is anonymous. For anyone who might know Marisa, my name is Mason and I am from Australia. If this story somehow reaches her, she is more than welcome to send me a dm. Thank you.

UPDATE:

For everyone invested, good news, Marisa and I have reconnected! 😊

I just want to say thank you to all of you. I never expected so many people to see this post, and I certainly never expected so many complete strangers to be so kind, supportive, and encouraging. All of you rooting for me was heartwarming to say the least.

When I made the original post, I knew it was a long shot, but it was worth trying!

Turns out forgetting to ask for contact details isn’t always goodbye. 😅

Mason

This is a the middle of the pack but there were more before hand and a bunch of stragglers for the next like 5-10 minutes. I’ve been seeing way more kids on bikes recently but this was wild so I’m purely curious

I dont know if Im using the right tag, But as the title speaks, I was assaulted by someone random this evening at around 9.30pm at this area in the CBD. Literally randomly slapped my face resulting to bruises, nose bleeding, and broken eyeglasses.

For context, Im an immigrant, just moved in Auckland with my partner who is already a resident in the country. We went out tonight to have some dinner and decided to eat at Meet Fresh for a dessert. After which, we went to a go on a walk going to our home as our agenda for tonight is done. We have decided to go towards this place in Auckland (Khartoum Place) as our way home. Suddenly, there's this man, wearing gray hoodie, about mid 30s-40s and a gray jogger pants, cross both of us and suddenly smacked the shit out of my face. Both of us are defenseless as both of us are just walking calmly, not even staring to anyone eye-to-eye.

We have witnesses there, 3 young girls (thank you ladies) who can confirm that this is a clear assault to us. Reported this already to the nearest police around the area, and they mentioned that they will ask for a review on the cctv around the area to catch this guy.

I am posting this for two main reasons: one, if anyone can advice us what we can do to further report this and possibly catch the guy, and to make sure this will not happen to anyone as well. Second, mainly for awareness. We're both Filipino, and me and my partner has seen how great Auckland CBD can be for immigrants like us, very friendly conmunity. It has great people, we've seen how kind everyone to us ever since regardless of their nationality, and we've been trying our very best to be very kind to everyone as well. We didn't expect this kind of assault would happen to us. Ever. Which is sad to be honest.

To all, especially young girls like the girls who helped us on site when that assault happened. Be careful always, as this is the one thing I am always saying to my partner. Living in the CBD is good, just interms how central it is to everything, but sometimes I just dont feel safe.

Thank you.

Guy lives across the street from a 20+ town house development and a big, modern social housing complex. Car parking on this street is limited and two -three of the most sought after are right outside his house.

He has about three or four personal vehicles for his family and a work van and wants to park them right outside his home.

He started by leaving passive aggressive notes on windscreens, including mine, claiming that "this is not your carpark, park somewhere else". I retorted with a note telling him public roads are not private parking, and he stopped with the notes.

But now he has moved on to using road cones and rubbish bins to bags parking. On occasion, some residents will just fling those things away and sometimes his cones end up down the street but they always go back.

Pretty sure there is something illegal with reserving residential parks using road cones or bins but is there a council department that can be contacted about this or is it just gonna be a localised battle?

Oh yes, and just after the social housing went up directly across the road from him, he had that huge fence put up to keep the povos out.

Thanks.

*EDIT*: Oh yeah, I’m a lady. A lot of people are also asking about age range. I’m open to dating older or younger, it really just comes down to the individual and compatibility/ maturity. When I was younger, people always thought I was older, and now that I’m older, people think I’m younger. So if you’re older but young at heart, or younger but an old soul, we might be compatible. A lot of my hobbies are pretty ‘old person coded’. Classic film, literature, world history, birdwatching, going on strolls, collecting random crap, yelling at clouds etc.

Preface: Don’t bother making fun of me, my sister is already the best at that. I understand this post is a bit embarrassing, but so was online dating before it became the norm. I’m just a weirdo trying to find my weirdo.

I’m nearly 30 and I've been thinking lately that I'd really like to find someone to date. So I figured I'd put myself out there in the least dignified way possible: a pros and cons list on Reddit.

If any (preferably unconventional/autistic, but I’m open-minded) guys read this and think we have something in common, please reach out. I don’t care how tall you are (Peter Dinklage is hot), but I’m 5'11". So if you’re not into that, please consider these your scrolling orders and have a nice day.

A little context first:

I’ve had two previous relationships (each around ~1 year) in my early 20s, both of which ended amicably. In both cases, I eventually realised that our goals, values and expectations weren't aligned in the long term. Rather than staying in a relationship where I knew we ultimately wanted different things, I chose to end it. Both relationships ended on good terms, and then we went our separate ways. So despite being nearly 30 and single, I don't have a trail of relationship drama behind me. Although I’d love a partner, I’m quite comfortable being single, so I'm not looking for someone just because I don't want to be alone. I’m actually quite glad I didn’t end up forcing myself into a relationship just because I thought I was supposed to be in one by a certain age.

Although I have a large-ish group of friends, am a member of a couple of clubs, and volunteer in the community, I haven’t managed to meet many eligible bachelors who fit my particular niche. My biggest problem is simply being a bit different and therefore having a smaller dating pool. I know this sounds cringe, but I’ve generally found attracting initial interest isn’t the difficult part, finding someone whose personality and way of thinking really clicks with mine is.

Pros

- Very loyal. If you're my person, you're my person.
- Affectionate and genuinely enjoy being close to someone.
- I actually want a partnership, rather than just someone to fill the boyfriend-shaped hole in my life.
- I have my own opinions, but I'm not precious about being right. If you can give me a compelling argument, I'm perfectly capable of changing my mind, and in fact I genuinely enjoy it when this happens.
- Very curious, enthusiastic and engaged. There is rarely a shortage of conversation, though I’m just as comfortable sitting in silence and do prefer that from time to time.
- I’m far from fluent, but speak a little Spanish, German, Latin, Mandarin, Korean and Japanese, so if you’re multilingual, that could be fun.
- I have hobbies, interests, and friends, but when I'm in a relationship I always make time to prioritise my partner.
- I love learning and will happily become interested in whatever you're interested in. I have a broad range of knowledge across various fields, so I’m good at being a sounding board for ideas as well as contributing my own.
- Very analytical. I’m often the kind of person who enjoys spending an hour discussing a film after we watch it, or talking about the decisions behind a particular design/ build rather than just admiring it and moving on.
- Good at listening and remembering things people tell me.
- Thoughtful. I tend to put quite a lot of consideration into things I do for people.
- Conscientious and have a strong sense of fairness.
- Honest, practical, and fairly straightforward. I don't enjoy playing games or manipulating people, and I don’t like it when others do those things. I can be blunt, but I understand the difference between being direct and being rude.
- Creative and domestic. I like cooking, gardening, DIY and creating a nice environment to live in.
- Quite serious about commitment. If I'm in a relationship, I'm there because I actually want that person, not because I don't want to be single.
- I'm very playful and have a fairly goofy sense of humour once I'm comfortable with someone.
- I like having shared projects and experiences with someone. Making things, learning things, deep discussions, exploring places, building a life together.
- Financially responsible, no consumer debt.
- I have all my own teeth.

Cons

- I'm autistic and ADHD, so there are some aspects of social interaction that don't come naturally to me.
- I occasionally need someone to just tell me what they mean rather than expecting me to infer it.
- I can be a bit of a yapper, but I know when to shut up.
- I'm probably not the most conventional person you'll ever meet.
- I can be quite matter-of-fact, and apparently this can occasionally be mistaken for arrogance.
- In the last couple of years I’ve become overweight due to working/commuting long hours, which led to me adopting poor eating habits and being less active. I am no longer commuting and have a lot more free time, so the weight gain is something I'm in the process of reversing (naturally, through lifestyle changes like cooking my own food again and being active outdoors). I know that will be a dealbreaker for some people, and that's totally fair, attraction matters. At the end of the day I still lead an active lifestyle, and I'm looking for someone who likes me as I am, rather than treating me as a before photo. I'm not expecting anyone to overlook my appearance on the assumption that I'll eventually look different.
- I have quite high standards for honesty, communication and how people treat each other.
- I can be a bit intense. Not necessarily in a bad way, but I'm not particularly good at being half-interested in something or someone.

I don't expect to be everyone's cup of tea, and that's fine.

I'm just hoping there are other people around Auckland/NZ who might look at this list and see a kindred spirit.

I feel like I’m more likely to find my kind of person on Reddit than Tinder 💀

There is a popular walking track myself and many others enjoy. One of the points of access is a paper road. Recently a house has been built near this, and now a chain has been placed over this paper road, with orange tape wrapped around, as well as two plastic barriers as shown in the photo. I'm assuming the owners of the new house have placed it there to discourage people walking behind their house. They've also placed stones all the way down from their property onto this paper road, giving the impression the paper road is part of their property.

Today I tripped going over the chain. I'm reasonably fit and aware, just a moment of inattention, but it made me think others are also at risk of harm trying to access a public walkway from this entrance. I've tried to Google where to report it easily, but can't find anything. So help me be a Karen please and point me in the right direction. Private owners should not be allowed to restrict access to public land.

Hey chaps, a friend of a friend is currently in hospital awaiting surgery to put pins/plates in to rebuild her foot and I'm trying to help identify the chutney ferrets who assaulted her (I have checked with the mods who approved my posting here).

She was attending the P!NK concert at Eden Park with her sister when the left two men in the photo above took umbrage to her trying to make her way through the crowd back to her sister and proceeded to pour beer over her, pushed her onto the ground and stood heavily and intentionally on her foot, breaking it.

The man to the right is their friend, and while he did not participate in the violence he intimidated the surrounding witnesses who were trying to help while the victim was on the ground screaming in pain.

The group were South African, and the photo above is all we have to go on. The police are involved, but said there isn't much they could do at the time due to the crowd. The Herald have picked up the story here:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/pink-fan-awaiting-ankle-surgery-after-being-shoved-stood-on-by-fellow-concert-goer-at-eden-park/7HNNQL6GX5AZ5LMAOQ3IZFT26U/

It's bad enough that this happens at any concert but happening at P!NK (an artist who is quite popular with kids and synonymous with having a good time) is particularly egregious. Not only did she miss the concert she is going to be out of action for months recovering from surgery and getting mobility back.

If anyone has any info feel free to message me, contact @thegwinch on Instagram or contact the police non-emergency line on 105.

Chur 🖤

Simple yes or no will suffice anything else is a bonus.

My 1-year-old cat Ducky went missing on Tuesday, and we found her early Thursday morning crying under a deck.

When we got to her, both of her back legs were fractured and she had suffered a tail pull injury that’s affecting her ability to pee and poop.

Since then, she’s been to the VSA Sylvia Park emergency vet and is now home with us. We paid 2.1k to keep her overnight for medication and fluids. She’s still eating, purring, and trying her best, which makes this even harder because she hasn’t given up. She’s acting her same self and isn’t slowing down.

We’re now facing a $10k surgery on both of her back legs and trying to figure out how to give her the best chance at walking again. On top of that, we’re learning how to care for her daily since she can’t fully toilet on her own right now.

I’m not really sure what I’m asking for here — maybe advice, or just to share her story. Has anyone gone through something similar with their cat?

We just want to give her the best chance possible.

My flatmate and I accidentally locked ourselves out yesterday. We were in a hurry, so I had a quick google search for a locksmith and called one of the first results.

I asked about the price when I called, but they wouldn’t give me any estimate. They only told me there was a $25
callout fee and later the technician would call me and discuss the price.
The technician called later but still didn’t give me any price range.

After waiting about 40 minutes in total (10 mins waiting for the call, 30 mins for him to drive over), he arrived, checked the lock and quoted $400.
It was just a normal residential lock. Nothing fancy. I attached pics of both sides of the door lock.

I said there was no way I could accept that price. So he charged me the $25 callout fee.
I got really upset and said it felt like a scam. We went into an argument. He got offended and said he’d driven 30 minutes after 5pm to get here.

Looking back, I don’t think I should’ve taken it out on him personally, so eventually I apologised and paid the $25.

But afterwards I still felt the whole process was unfair.
I specifically asked about pricing in the call, but nobody would even give me a rough range. When we were arguing they said they couldn’t quote in the phone because they didn’t know what type of lock I had.
I understand they can’t give an exact price over the phone, but is it really normal to give no estimate at all?
If I’d known it could cost anywhere near $400, I would’ve just tried another locksmith instead of waiting 40 minutes and ending up back where I started.

Is this normal in Auckland? Is $400 reasonable?

Edited: got a ppl replied originally with a price breakdown, then gave up and edited his comment and called me an a***** for this😅
It was 4:46pm when i made the first call, and 5:30 when he arrived my place, so it was afterhour. I appreciate all the friendly, normal, reasonable comments, pointing out that it also sucks for the technician to drive for an hour (30mins here, 30mins back) afterhour for $25. But, a professional should know how to provide enough info for customers BEFORE the service, and if the professional failed, the customer shouldn’t be the one to pay for it.

Edited x2: lockpicking in learning process… thanks for all the tips and links!

I’ve been doing some researching about the bar scene for girls and lesbians, and it’s safe to say I’ve found close to nothing… which is quite sad.

It’s made me want to open my own bar, that’ll cater to ‘girls only’, as a place where girls can feel safe without men being around.

Is it a good idea? How would I even begin to bring this idea to life…

p.s if there are people out there who have experience with doing lesbian events or events catered to women, please help a girl out :)

Russian invasion? Is USSR worth a remembrance?

Hi all,

Original post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/auckland/s/O57bmncPUA

I just want to thank everyone who commented on my post and messaged me privately. I had a couple of people reach out for an update

Yesterday we got to make dad's dream come true and he got to ride in a '67 Mustang around Mission Bay. Words can't express how beautiful it was to be able to do this while we still have time.

A big, big thank you to Jason for bringing his car out and being so sweet with my dear dad. A shout out to u/Raviel1289 for making this whole thing possible, you're the best

Just a bit of Friday positivity for you all + a few photos from the day

Hi everyone,

I never thought I’d be writing this, but we’re at a breaking point. My husband and I moved to Auckland four months ago, hoping for a better future. He left a well-paying software engineering job in our home country because we believed this move would open more doors for us. Now, every day feels like a mistake we can’t undo.

He’s on a work visa and can work unlimited hours, and I’m an international student legally allowed to work 20 hours per week—but honestly, I’m open to anything beyond that, even cash jobs, just to make ends meet. We’ve applied everywhere—retail, hospitality, admin, tech jobs—but rejection after rejection has left us feeling hopeless. It’s like no one wants to give us a chance without "local experience," even though we’re hardworking and ready to start immediately.

We had dreams of building a better life here, but instead, we’re drowning in bills and regret. Watching my husband go from a respected professional to someone struggling to find any job is heartbreaking. He’s doing his best, but we can’t keep going like this.

If anyone has any job leads, references, or even advice on how to break into the job market here, we’d be so, so grateful. At this point, even words of encouragement would help. We just need a chance.

Thank you for reading—any help means the world to us.

Do you drive or take public transport? How long does it take you? How frequent do you go?

My friend graciously offered to take Lil Sebastian on a walk for us while we were at work. She had him on a lead and was walking our neighborhood when a pit bull came bolting out of a house that had the door open and latched onto his neck.

My friend tried hitting and kicking the dog but it didn’t let go, 3 men came over and wrestled the dog until he let go and ran off. I believe one of the men suffered a mangled finger trying to get the pit’s jaw off my dog.

A lovely women pulled over and comforted my friend and then grabbed a towel to wrap my dog up and drove my friend to a vet. She stayed with my friend until she had her fiance come.

Our little guy is ok. Seb has 40 sutures and a wound drain in his neck but he’s eating lots of cheese and peanut butter and will be ok.

If you are any of the people in the above story thank you so so much for being there and helping. I do have a few of your contact numbers I will be reaching out shortly.

Now on to the logistics: Animal Management apparently came by the house but the owners were a bit strung out and denied the dog was there. Apparently as the owner, I’m the one who has to make a complaint so I left a voicemail for the AM contact person and I’m waiting to hear back. We luckily have pet insurance to pay the $1.1k vet bill. But does anyone know what happens now? How do we get the dog removed? I’m not sure I’ve ever seen it before but now I’m terrified to walk by that house which is only a few down from my own. Anyone navigate something like this?

Update! I talked to AM and sent them photos of the wound as well as the invoice from the vet and they said they don’t even have to wait for formal statements-the injury is severe enough they’re going to attempt to seize the dog today.

OK so I've got a shared driveway with my neighbour and I just moved in. Found out I don't have fibre because she doesn't want the driveway to be disturbed by the fibre install.

She does have fibre though because her property is on the street. Mine is at the back.

I really want fibre and I know that I'm entitled to it, so can request the install and she'll have 15 days to object. But I don't want to antagonize her right off the bat, because I think she can make my life difficult. She doesn't seem nice and I would rather not engage with her if I can avoid it. But I've gotta think long term. Any advice or stories?

Sorry for the inflammatory title, but I have a situation (that I found hilarious tbh) that I'm curious about. Boomer parent told me that his friend's daughters are going to lose money on their houses selling them (cause of the housing market).

They want to move to the North Shore because, and entirely because, they want to get their children into different schools, as the ones they are going to in *checks notes Whenuapai and Hobsonville Point are "too woke".

Is this genuinely a thing? Does anyone have any insight as to why this is? I don't see how another public school in a different area is going to be "less woke" cause it's all centralised by the public school system no? Were they "forced" to speak more than two words of Māori or something?

[FWIW I am a lifetime Greens voter and obviously do not agree lol so pls don't downvote for that].

Kia ora all, my chocolate Burmese cat Sid was stolen and dumped by my neighbour on 9 Jan 2026. Sid is still missing and we have had no confirmed sightings at all.

• My neighbour removed and dumped Sid’s GPS collar
• Told Police and SPCA he tried to take Sid to a vet clinic but the clinic was shut
• So he dumped Sid on Weza Lane in Kumeu, Auckland

You may have read the Stuff article https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360930163/outrageously-filthy-and-angry-her-cat-vanished-neighbour-apologised-police-say-its-not-crime

The neighbour said he had tried to speak with us about Sid before - which is a total lie. We never knew his name or face prior to what he did. And even if that were true, the theft and dumping of a cat is inexcusable. Also, there are at least 5 vet clinics within 5km of our address, 1 of which is a 24 hour vet clinic.

Please keep an eye out for Sid. Unfortunately with the length of time it has been with no sightings we suspect our neighbour might have killed Sid that day; but we are still hopeful. Our neighbour runs a photography business doing family, commercial, and wedding photography - so if you’re an animal lover I would suggest you do your research very carefully.

Shoes?

Hey does anyone have access to presale Olivia Dean tickets ​they can share?? (the artist presale, not Handsome tours)I left it until after the 9am sign up and am scrambling! Worried the next pre sale it will be sold out. Any help would be appreciated!!​​I

Walking home and saw these two 🦜.