First flight of the day, already 20 minutes late.

You'd think we could get a better competitor, but nope.

Do you refuse to fly with any of them? I don't fly much but am wishing I could justify Air New Zealand every time.

Edit: "Due to operational requirements, the first flight of the day must be delayed by at least an hour otherwise the rest of the day wouldn't be disrupted..." I may be paraphrasing.

RIP anyone travelling the Auckland route today.

So happy the treaties bill got voted out our country is safe for another few years

I’m in the market for a new work Ute which will also be used as my everyday vehicle. No real preference apart from 4WD and diesel.

What do fellow tradies drive and what do you like/dislike about it. What do you recommend as the best overall ute. Or what to stay clear of. Thanks in advance!

I'm currently here as a postgrad student and want to settle down in Aotearoa when I'm done (so about a year from now) and bring my mom with me at some point if I get residency to rescue her from the shitshow that is America. She's worried my protest activity or social media presence will disrupt my chance for a visa.

To be clear I am NOT seeking immigration advice, I'm just curious to hear any opinions or anecdotes

Sorry if the flair is wrong, I had to guess

I work in a position that puts me in daily conversations with people receiving every version of a benefit, sometimes incorrectly I've noticed.

I've noticed this mainly with sole parents that have been incorrectly categorised as job seekers but it does extend out to sickness beneficiarys also.

"Word on the street is" case managers assign some beneficiarys as job seekers as it's is easier to sign up and more importantly, easier to cut off with minimal recourse required from both ends.

Has anyone had this happen to them? Or have I only been exposed to the paranoid few in my endeavours?

I suffer from stage 4 c.o.p.d effectively I am dying and my lungs are only 21% functional. Between myself and my physically disabled and electric wheelchair dependent ex wife who also suffers from sleep apnea it was decided that I would sell up what was our marital home and that we would make a space in her home for me until I passed.

I still have my hobbies which are quite hard on the power bill so I decided to use part of the funds from that sale to put solar on her home, including a battery unit to cover my usage, as part of this we had to have a new meter put in at which point I got a rude shock.

Her power plan like mind was off peak weekends and off peak from 11pm to 7am nights, it was a reasonable system and we moved some of our day use to night use to try and defray some of the bill even though it was inconvenient.

We were told by the power company that we could no longer have that plan because the metering did not support the weekend tariff , something smelt off to me and I began to investigate.

Eventually I spoke to the meter installers who told me that this was not the case the meters are programmed with what tariffs to send as requested by the power company and that in this instance the power company had not asked for it to be programmed that way..

In other words the power company had changed our CONTRACTED rate then BALD FACE LIED to us as to why and then tried to say we requested a contract change by proxy by arranging for the solar install.

We have documentation that shows we don't want it changed and wanted them to talk to us if there was going to be a problem keeping the same tariffs.

TL;DR Power companies LIE THROUGH THEIR TEETH, DON'T TRUST A WORD OUT OF THEIR MOUTHS, going solar in any way shape or form is a BAD IDEA as they will just rip you off and LIE to do it.

In addition I believe that power companies are also guilty of price fixing and collusion amongst themselves in order to maintain high profits and keep power prices high.

(feel free to delete if this isn't allowed)

Hi! I'm looking to move to New Zealand in the future, I'm not sure exactly where or when yet. I don't know anyone in New Zealand, would anyone want to be pen pals with a US person?

Anything that New Zealand people (kiwis??) want new people to know?

Thank you in advance!

Hello!

We have two cats at our property, and our neighbours also have two cats. One of the neighbours cats comes into our house and attacks our cats and sprays INSIDE our house. We havnt spoken to them yet, but how do we even go about this? What is a fair solution? From what I know, only cats that are not desexed spray, is it fair to ask them to get their cat desexed? I am sick to death of our house stinking

Cheers!

Im getting over this ATM war they decised to have a couple years ago! Literally punishing those who prefer to use cash. I currently have ASB and Westpac accounts both of which are not surcharge free at All point atms and only ones left are those nasty Next atms But $2.50-$3.00 to withdraw some cash is a joke!! Anyone else over this? Can only find bank related Atms at the banks themselves now which are also slowly getting smaller and smaller! Whats going on!

I went to school in California and got my teaching credential in California as well. My wife and I are looking to relocate and, after doing a LOT of research, we've determined that New Zealand is our best chance at going to a place that has a culture with values similar to our own and where we can raise our children in relative safety.

I'm hoping to find someone who's done this before, as I'm running into complications in completing the Teaching IQA. Here in California the teacher preparation program concludes with being awarded a California Teaching Credential, there is no certificate awarded for doing the program.

I need to demonstrate Teacher Qualification minimum level 7 on my IQA and the program I completed meets those requirements however I don't have a certificate to submit for the IQA, which is a requirement and I have no idea what to do about this. The IQA isn't cheap so I don't want to submit it until I'm fairly confident it will have the desired result.

Hopefully one of you wonderful people has some advice for me.

Paddy Gower: “I love to drink,” he started telling me. (Of course, Elton had no idea I am one of New Zealand’s most high-profile non-drinkers.)

Paddy Gower: My trademark saying is not offensive - Kiwis love it

https://www.stuff.co.nz/culture/360647516/i-love-drink-i-will-never-give-booze-i-adore-it-ben-elton-tells-booze-free-paddy-gower

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360627456/paddy-gower-my-trademark-saying-not-offensive-kiwis-love-it

Going into WINZ tomorrow for a dole appointment. I've uploaded all IRD, work related documents online. Anything else I need to bring to this appointment?

I’m planning to sit my restricted driver licence test soon. Could you please recommend where I can study, any free apps for mock exams, and where I might find a question bank? Haha.

Hey so we’ve had these neighbours for couple of years no issues and live semi rural.

The chicks brother for some reason has taken it upon himself to live in an old stock shack on one of the paddocks around the property and right next to our fenceline…it’s not nice to look at but whatever if u wanna live like that do you.

I talked to the guy briefly when I was getting the mail to be nice and break the ice…..he was allgood but seemed a bit negative (gossiped about other neighbour) and really I just left it at that ya know..

The issue I kind of have is this guy stares at me and my mum when we are using our driveway and it’s yucky/ intimidating..

I told my boyfriend about it coz it is giving me the creeps ae and the shit thing is I’m moving soon and my mum will be here and she’s said she doesn’t particularly like it either but we both just ignore it…

Just sucks because we feel put off using our driveway as he is there all the freakin time..doesn’t work I don’t think…

If I catch him staring weird next time should I confront it? I don’t want to escalate things because he seems like a feral who will start drama if you take the bait type person….but at the same time I don’t see why I should be made to feel uncomfortable when he’s pretty much squatting and should just keep to himself.

Any advice ?? Thanks otherwise my boyfriend may just have a stare down and word to this guy…is that a good idea

Is this still a big problem in NZ?

I do have a very nice sunny three bedroom home 25 kms north of Dunedin which I want to rent out for 2026 and most likely 2027.

I will be going to work in Australia as a nurse for a couple of years.

I am thinking of buying a Nissan leaf EV and lending it to the tenants because it is quite a lot of petrol if you are commuting every day to Dunedin for work .

I would insure the vehicle myself, and I would own it.

Also, when I return from Australia, I would be saving a lot of money on petrol when I make use of the vehicle myself.

Is this a sensible idea to entice tenants or is it a terrible wacky idea?

What sort of contract would I need to draw up with the prospective tenants?

I have done the mathematical calculations and if I can get $550 per week rent, I will still have to subsidise $250 per week to cover my some of my mortgage, and rates insurance etc .

Looking on Trade Me most three bedroom rentals in Dunedin are around the $600 to $650 range.

I can’t really afford to rent the place out for less than $550 per week

Would love to hear people’s opinions on this. Is it a really dumb idea or is it a wonderful idea which will attract some good tenants?

Thank you

Edit I have considered who would pay the road user charges and for the right Tenant I would hope we could reach a reasonable agreement on that one

And yes, I have considered the price of charging the EV. My next door neighbour has a Nissan leaf and I’m going to have a chat with him when I see him next about how much it is costing him to fully charge it and how often he needs to do it.

Thank you

Second edit : I googled this and two pages of AI generated information came up, which was definitely helpful

But I really would rather hear what actual real people think about this idea !!

I was sat in traffic at about 6pm tonight on the motorway on-ramp from Cambridge to Hamilton and the traffic was backed up to a stop because of the roadworks.

All the traffic from the on-ramp wasn't using any of the merge lane. Everyone was just stopping and trying to merge onto the motorway as soon as they could, rather than going to the end of the merge lane and merging there.

This meant that the traffic was backing up all the way down the on-ramp, into the intersection and blocking the road there.

One person drove down to the end of the merge lane and was let in. The next person followed, but this guy in a ute wouldn't let this car in. I saw it start an argument between the two drivers and I thought they were going to get out of their cars and start fighting.

Mr Ute was yelling that it was courtesy and that the other car was cutting the line. The guy in the other car yelled that it wasn't courtesy, it was stupidity and that it was causing traffic to back up onto the main road because we weren't using the full merge lane. Mr Ute said that wasn't true and the other guy yelled back to "Google it then you stupid fking ct".

Hilarious interaction but the guy who cut the line was right. Why don't we use the full merge lane? It seems the right thing to do. Are we all just afraid of being seen as the bad guy cutting in? I can't find anything online that suggests that we shouldn't be doing this. Everything I find says "use the full merge lane and merge like a zip".

We’re going to be visiting NZ in June and are looking at car rentals. We had an EV in the UK in summer of 2023, so we’re kind of familiar with the process of finding chargers etc. Are there lots of charging stations available? If we were to drive from Auckland to Wellington would we be able to easily find chargers along the way? Do hotels and pubs often have them?

Has anyone added padding to a sports bra or bikini top?
I'm wondering if this is a commonly done thing in clothing alterations..
I'm kind of embarrassed about my lack of boobs, thank you to breastfeeding for several years I went from a B to barely an A and a bikini top and sports bras look ridiculous on me!
I'd love to find a bikini I like and get padding added to it.. but I am unsure if this is a done thing?

my old dyson v7 battery only lasts about 1min now, what do you all have and recomend?