I'm taking the plunge- Madam Chair has approved the $$- and I'm getting a mini excavator for a load of landscaping work, and various small drainage projects around the small-block.

I've decided on a Rippa ECO R10, available from distributor in Nelson.

Calling out to anyone with a Rippa in NZ to tell me what they've learned, what they think etc....

HELP!!

quick drawing at queenstown kiwi park. They are just so cute 😍

We see all the advertising about Labour and friends having 10 new taxes.

Let’s look at NACT and unfunded promises.

1. NZF and $4B for trains.
   
2. Buying BNZ - $20B. (7 to 30 depending on who you ask).
   
3. ACT - defence spending - $12B.
   
4. ACT - cancer treatment center - $10B

Even if we balance this with $20b is cuts, it’s $25B with no funding plan.

Let’s ask Luxon how he will fund all that?

As we are almost one week out from the NZ election, nobody has any idea about who is going to win. This got me thinking - will this be the closest election in our lifetimes?

I am quite young so I cant remember very many elections, so let me know!

No campaigning or advertising including billboards is allowed on election day. I understand why that was the case historically, to avoid last minute influence or pressure. However, with more and more people voting in advance, people voting on election day have more protection than people voting any other time and that to me seems inconsistent. Is it time to change the law?

I think maybe the billboards and other advertising are fine and should be allowed on election day as well. But there should be heavy penalties for putting pressure on individual voters (eg. Door knocking, approaching people with political sales pitches in and around polling places), for the entire period that voting is open. Would that be a more consistent approach? Do you have other ways to solve the inconsistency? Is this something that doesn't need fixing?

Windy days are ahead, with gusts potentially exceeding 100 km/h: https://www.ventusky.com/wind-gusts-map/1-hour#p=-42.3;173.9;5&t=20261101/1200

Found just as youre entering the south end of Kingston. Have no idea why its there but it is. Anyone else seen it or got any ideas of why its there?

Edit, yes I know I spelt you're wrong in the title, please stop telling me about it.

My last baby didn't make his way to me until a bit later. The daycare mum all seem late 20s- early 30s and I'm pushing 40.

I'm not alone right? Right?

Please tell me there's other mums in late 30s and early 40s out there somewhere...

Yes, seriously.

If you forgot to enrol or never got around to it, go and vote anyway! You can cast a special vote, and it will be counted as a disallowed vote.

If the number of disallowed votes sharply increases from the previous election, it will show that Luxons voters suppression plan has worked, and show just how big a problem it really is. If they want to remove your right to engage with politics last-minute, then go out and get that impact reflected in the final statistics!

Hi everyone I got an email when I enrolled to say my application was successful and that they will email me when they’ve processed my form, do I have to wait for this second email before I can actually go and vote? Thanks

I am one of those young folks that hasn’t been too invested in politics over the years, i havnt voted twice in the last 6 years and normally just vote for whoever my parents did. Is there any way to find unbias TLDR statements regarding each party?

Let's bring back the true meaning behind Boxing Day and give to charity or the needy.

Recently a person asked me why is Boxing Day called 'Boxing Day'.

I realised I have never known anything about the day after Christmas that we also celebrate.

So I was surprised when I found out it's purpose, and equally saddened that we have given up on it's beautiful meaning.

So, how about after receiving on Christmas, we do a little for those in need on Boxing Day.

Article republished by 1news.

Science paper outlines blueprint for successful giant wētā recovery. DOC. 02 October 2026. Scimex.

The paper:

Green Chris, McFarlane Donald, Goodwin Ben, Barrett Paul, Huang Chye-Mei, Ayres Jessica, Gibson Richard, Captive Breeding Programme Enables a Successful Wētāpunga (Deinacrida heteracantha: Orthoptera: Anostostomatidae) Recovery Programme, New Zealand Journal of Zoology 2026, 53, e70061. https://doi.org/10.1002/njz2.70061

Info pages about Giant wētā / wētāpunga / Deinacrida heteracantha

Department of Conservation

Wikipedia: Deinacrida heteracantha

Auckland Zoo

Education resource by Butterfly Creek

RNZ Critter of the Week Wetapunga on 1 February 2019.

Edit after posting to add space in names for the paper. Sorry. Nott sure what happened with the copy + paste

Just putting this out there so it hopefully shows up in 2026/2027 searches of this company.

Do not trust them. 🚩

It may seem obvious to some, but they got me and there’s not a lot out there about them so just sharing here ;)

I started getting suspicious after quite a long time not hearing anything after payment was made (about a month +). I bought a business sign off them.

I checked the Shop app and saw that they’d confirmed the order as “delivered” on the same day I purchased it (a customised sign btw). That felt weird so I followed up.

After a few emails and complete radio silence from them , I was randomly sent an additional invoice for shipping despite shipping being free at checkout via the shop app. They said I “chose Auckland” as shipping destination (which I didn’t) and this incurred additional fees.

They said they’re holding my customised product back until I pay the additional shipping. And this is after months of not hearing a word and nobody clearly communicating with me up til that point. No questions answered, nothing to give me confidence that they even made the product. Just them emailing me for more money. It felt weird.

The email itself didn’t address me by name and there was no sign-off name either so that also seemed odd. It was like they weren’t even pretending to not be scammy by that point.

This “please pay before we send” appears to be a second scam to get you to pay them more.
I felt dumb enough as it was getting (apparently) scammed the first time around, so I haven’t paid again haha. Would a sign actually show up? Who bloody knows! I have submitted a chargeback so I won’t be finding out.
Had they actually communicated with me I would have maybe gone through with the shipping fee but being ghosted does nothing for confidence.

The communication is weird af. It’s like they don’t even see your responses or emails (or just blatantly ignore them) then send you random ones about your order being held until you pay more. And of course there are no other avenues for contact (that work) and they don’t sign off using names (to look up online) or respond to questions.

That’s why I started doing more digging and found a couple reddits about similar experiences. Yep yep should have done this before buying… I know haha

🚩

The website says they are “an NZ family run business”- I doubt this very much. Most likely everything is overseas and they’ve got the phoney .nz website to catch people out. If I’m wrong, thats almost worst.

As an fyi, I had no idea that offshore scammers can just buy up an nz web domain. So, I know that now 🤣

Their website is pretty well done and because they’ve gone through the effort of being set up with Shopify, they look legit (well, they did to me anyway). This is how I got scammed. I figured a company can’t be a scam if it’s set up via the Shopapp and has an .co.nz website (learned my lesson there haha).

Their products show up immediately when searching for custom business signs and stickers. I read their website reviews and the Shop app reviews and thought, yeah let’s give it a go. The pricing wasn’t so amazing that it seemed too good to be true. All seemed legit. But! should have looked into it further, that’s definitely my bad. First time I’ve ever been scammed lol

Their FB and Instagram is creepy as hell and all AI.
Had I checked those out first, I probably would have avoided this.

Since digging into it further, I’ve also noticed negative reviews disappear (mine included) which raises concerns about whether the company is removing criticism to maintain the appearance of being legitimate and trustworthy to snatch up more dummies like me 🤣

Something I have learned from this is that if a website doesn’t seem to have a physical NZ business address and/or you can’t find an NZBN, maybe do more research.

If they aren’t offshore scammers, then the alternative is that they’re an extraordinarily shit NZ company with absolutely zero customer support, accountability, or regard for their customers. Either way, neither explanation makes them a business anyone should trust.

I have initiated a chargeback through my bank to recover the money.

Anyways, there we have it! Learn from my balls up

Buyer beware

Is it acceptable to ask a GP for Propanalol/Inderal during a consultation?

Hi, does anyone have any advice on where to buy cheap glasses in NZ or online that ships to newzealand. I am not wanting to spend hundreds on one pair.

For the record not a single party or candidate felt like the right choice to me. So, I went with the best fit to my values. That's all any one of us can ever do. Might come to nothing, might help tug the reins in a good direction.

So, if you've enrolled, just rock up and do your best. If you haven't, rock up and place a special vote so there's a record of what the rule change has done.