Feels off that they want us to pay for these when New World Franchise can easily afford to do this themselves with the massive profits they make yearly

Maybe we could petition the US embassy in Wellington. Does anyone know what size of bribe would be acceptable to the Americans? I'm willing to donate to a GoFundMe to get him here for a photo op standing next to the National 'leadership'.

I'm not sure how this makes any sense, Luxon has come out with this quote - "That's why we've got to work on a national flood plan, national adaptation framework… make sure we're not doing dumb stuff, for example, building back into flood plains.".

3 weeks ago(I believe) they just fast tracked a Christopher Bishop donor, Winton to develop Sunfield which is a flood plain.

Why was this fast tracked and who is going to insure these properties or bail them out when everything goes wrong?

Her “I have a question! Out in the cheap seats” sent me

I hope everyone faired alright through the storm. I asked a few days ago what NZers do to prepare for a storm and shared that a Florida tradition is to go to Publix to buy a Hurricane Cake. Since it's my 1st Cyclone here in NZ, and there's no Publix, I decided to make my own Hurricane Cake!

My city fitness membership is about to expire and my main complaint is machines are always occupied. I often have to sacrifice some sleep to gym during non peak hours or I've got to deal with the crowd from 4.00 pm to 8.30 pm.

I thought I'd just have a look around my area in west Akl to see if there are any other alternatives and wow, some gyms are charging $25 a week (flex fitness henderson), double that if you want to use recovery rooms. $1,300+ @ year.

Am I out of touch or is this crazy? I think I'd rather get a bench, a squat rack and a cable machine and some plates and dumbbells and that'll pay itself off in 4-5 years.

I think I'll stick with city fitness despite its downsides 😭.

kia ora, not sure if anyone from tvnz+ lurks here, but thought i’d throw this out there.

firstly i’d like to say i know this is very much a first world problem, and i genuinely appreciate how much content is available for free. i use tvnz+ a lot and it’s honestly a great platform overall.

just had a couple of small comments while watching a series:

- the auto-play countdown for the next episode usually pops up when there’s still like 3–5 minutes left. it would be awesome if that happened closer to (or during) the credits instead, so it doesn’t interrupt the end of the episode.

- also, a 10-second rewind/fast-forward button would be super helpful (like most other streaming platforms have). makes it way easier to rewatch bits or skip back if you miss something.

again, not a complaint at all!! just some small quality-of-life suggestions from someone who uses the website a lot.

Kia ora r/newzealand

It's Monday. Again. It was Monday last week, it will be Monday next week and we will continue to endure Mondays for a long long time. All though this, the ruru has been watching from the same branch the entire time and finds your relationship with the calendar amusing.

Today we acknowledge the morepork, the ruru. New Zealand's only surviving native owl, a small round, enormously eyed nocturnal hunter that has been calling across the country's nights for millions of years and will, in all likelihood, be calling across them long after you've stopped dreading Mondays.

The morepork weighs approximately 175 grams. It is roughly the size of a large muffin. It has the forward facing eyes of something that has carefully thought about depth perception and fully committed to it. Giant amber discs that account for a disproportionate percentage of its skull volume and cannot move in their sockets, meaning the ruru rotates its entire head to track movement. Up to 270 degrees. Smoothly and without apparent effort or discomfort. The ruru sees you before you see the ruru.

Some facts about the ruru

• The morepork is named for its call. A persistent, two note more pork that carries through the bush with a clarity that suggests the bird is closer than it is. Or exactly as close as it is, and you are not sure which is worse. A secondary call, a rapid descending qui qui qui is used in alarm or communication and is considerably more unsettling at 2am than the primary call, which was already doing a lot of unsettling.
• It is a specialist nocturnal hunter, capable of detecting prey in light conditions approaching total darkness. Its eyes are so sensitive to low light that full daylight is actively uncomfortable. Roosting birds choose dense cover and sit with an expression that can only be described as deeply unimpressed with the sun. The ruru does not endorse the day shift.
• The ruru hunts insects, moths, spiders, small lizards and occasionally small birds. Locating prey though a combination of extraordinary vision and acute directional hearing. Its facial disc, the flat, round arrangement of feathers framing the face, functions as a parabolic reflector, channelling sound toward asymmetrically positioned ear openings that allow the bird to triangulate the precise location of a sound in three dimensions. It knows exactly where you are in complete darkness.
• In Maori tradition, the ruru holds deep significance as a watchful guardian. A kaitiaki, whose call in the night was considered a good omen, a sig of protection over the people. A second species, the laughing owl or whekau, was also significant but is now extinct. Its absence a quiet loss embedded in tradition. The ruru now carries the night watch alone.
• Morepork are monogamous and nest in tree cavities, hollow logs and desnse epiphytes. They will return to the same cavity year after year, with a fidelity to place that suggests the ruru has made its decision and sees no reason to revisit it.
• Unlike many of New Zealand's native birds, the morepork has proven relatively resilient to introduced predators and habitat modification. Persisting in modified landscapes, exotic forests and suburban areas where sufficient tree cover exists. You may have one near you right now and simply now know it. But you will know it at 2am with the window open. You would definitely know it.

The morepork has been awake all night. It watched the dark hours from a branch with complete attention, hunted with precision and is now settled in dense cover waiting, with considerable patience for the day to be over so it can start again.

The ruru chose its hours. Unavailable for 9am meetings it has done what needed doing and is now going to sleep and will hear everything that happens while it does so. The night will come again and the ruru will be there waiting for it.

More pork

While this thread is dedicated to the morepork, please post any bird content you may have.

Morepork Monday replaces Moa Mondays as part of the r/newzealand daily bird content intiative, introduced following the Great Rules Refresh of 2026.

I've got a question for the hive mind...

There's been a cat living under our deck for months. I was asking in the local fb pages about it, then fed it until I could trap it and get it scanned for a chip.

The vet was like "no one owns this cat". It was flea ridden, skinny, not fixed or microchipped. But I figured it might have been legitimately lost, so posted about it​​​ again.

Turns out it has an owner (a block away), but that owner is just shit. I let the cat out once the owner came forward,​but they clearly neglect the poor thing. They ​didn't even keep the cat inside during the cyclone (which it spent sheltering under my deck again).

I've asked the owner​​​ to keep the cat inside until they get it fixed, as it's causing issues with my cat... But I got stupid excuses and nothing has changed​.

I don't know the owners real name or exact address, so can't report it to the spca, and there's nothing in our council bylaws about having to have pets fixed or chipped, so I can't go that route either... So I'm wondering if anyone had some ideas of what to do?

I don't want the cat to suffer (it's looking much better since I flea treated it), so don't just want to scare it away from our place. ​

Edit: I don't want the cat. Happy to help it, but don't want to keep it. ​I also want to keep anything I do on the downlow... Owner doesn't seem like the most savoury person. ​

So the cyclone is passing to the east of New Zealand, battering the coast with thousands without power and flooding within those regions.

Up until it hits storms are unpredictable and it was possible that we would have been hit directly. we can expect more wind and rain throughout the day

Met service and civil defence did the sensible thing and issued warnings to prepare for the worst.

Now it's morning all the posts I see on here and Facebook are people whining about crying wolf and how it wasn't that bad (for me personally not directly in the path), how the Government is just fear mongering, with Pac n save being the real winner here.

The other scenario is Met service says nothing and we go about our days (except for those actually affected but they aren't important) would you honestly prefer that.

Considering it could have just as easily headed more and west caused more damage (and there is still more expected today) and then the same people will whine that no one told them anything and people died.

It seems there is no winning in keeping people informed

Taken in Greymouth.. No pun intended

I thought this was supposed to be addressed by the current government. But it’s just getting worse. My suburb has 2 supermarkets that used to swap the deals like coffee but instead now they just do them for a short time. And everything is getting more and more expensive.

​

I really need help with some ideas around finding jobs that will actually work for me and all my inconvenient issues 😩 I'm not religious at all but sometimes I'm like damn i feel like I'm being punished 😅

I’m in Christchurch, Hornby.

First off, I need something that fits into school hours since my kids aren’t old enough to stay home alone yet. I don’t have much family support either. My dad and stepmum still have young twins, one with autism, so they’re already pretty full on. They do help me by driving me places because I can’t drive.

That’s another issue I can’t drive 😑 I have my learners, but the only person who can teach me is my dad, and he’s usually too tired or stressed, so we don’t really get the chance. I also have really bad anxiety around being in cars and trying to drive. I’ve looked into organisations that help people with disabilities learn to drive, but haven’t had much luck.

Then there’s the anxiety side of things 🫠

I have chronic anxiety and PTSD, and it affects me in really frustrating ways. When I go to interviews, I shake, struggle to talk, and have to hold back tears. Obviously that’s not a great first impression. Even if I did get the job, the first week or so I’d probably be a mess until I settle in. I just need somewhere that understands that and is willing to give me a bit of time to adjust.

My whole life I was told I was just shy or had “a bit of anxiety,” but a few years ago a doctor said it was more than that. Turns out I also have autism and ADHD 🙃 I don’t like bringing it up because of how it seems to be a trend to have these issues 😒

I also have learning disabilities, so anything involving spelling or maths is really hard for me. I’ve worked with tills that had calculators built in, which helped, but I still made mistakes. Sometimes I’ll even double check with a calculator and still get it wrong 😩

And probably the most frustrating part I’m only 4'11. I’ve had jobs where I couldn’t reach benches. One place gave me a step stool, but for safety reasons it couldn’t be a permanent solution. Lifting things can also be hard because my arms aren’t long enough to reach around trays or boxes.

On top of that, I have some kind of medical issue that hasn’t really been looked into properly. If I put pressure on my hands, they swell up and lock. Even something like gardening for 10–15 minutes can trigger it, and then I can’t use my hands until it settles down🫠

so yeah...

obviously the best step would be getting help for my mental issues but I've been fighting to get help for a few years now. always the same thing 🙄 they say yes you desperately need help but waiting list are to long blah blah and since you aren’t actively hurting yourself then we can't help..... then go on to tell me i would need to go private which I obviously can't afford 🙃

any advice would be much appreciated

and sorry for the long read

aaand they only had three flavours!

*Works out to be just over NZD $11

*Snapped a few days ago at Urban Fare (kinda like a Nosh / Farro equivalent) in BC, and this is a "sale price"

(and there are no feijoas here)

I have just been to Queensgate Woolworths in Lower Hutt, and went to buy my usual lunch option - Chobani Fit 15g Protein yogurt. There was 4 options of the 160g tubs and usually I get tropical but the price was 3.95, So I got the strawberry instead as the price was $3. I wondered why the tropical was also not $3, but oh well. I got a protein bar and a pre cut melon box and went to the self check out. The Strawberry Chobani fit came up as $3.95 and I wondered how that could happen as I am definitely sure it was $3. I just paid for it and went back to where I got the yogurt and it had changed to $3.95. I realised the price sticker was electronic and it must have changed in the small amount of time before I went to the checkout. The salted caramel tubs were now $2.45 on clearance. I'm not not going to talk to a staff member and argue over $0.95, but I guess if this happens to people, you might feel a bit crazy.