Found this at a muffin break at an Auckland mall today. Photographed Wednesday 28th of October. Very creative way to see who people are voting for while we wait for the final results.

Looks like every muffin break is doing this.

What are our thoughts?

I am sure there are a ton more examples and it needs to be noted Labour is still kinda limp on anti corruption laws.

Clear lobbying, such as:
- Cozying up to Ciggie companies - Cheers National
- Sacrificing ecosystems for mining for political backers - Cheers NZF

Privatisation
- Intentional Push Towards user pays healthcare - Thanks National and co.
- Charter schools - Cheers Act

Pandering to bunny boilers
- Abortion and gender bullshit - Cheers NZF

Selling of media companies to billionaires
- Newstalk ZB is full Fox now. TPU want us to sell rnz.

Excessive use of Fast Tracking
- Thanks a lot NACTNZ

Big money donors
- There are promises behind Acts fundraising.

Honestly I think New Zealand First is a massive issue, Shane Jones in particular. But the Fast Tracking law is what gets me.

The more I look at it the more we seem to be striving to be USA. And honestly I thought we’d be better than this.

I’m personally (obviously) left aligned, without an adult in Greens since Shaw left I’m no longer a fan.

Am I stupid for thinking that NACT are getting in and throwing my vote at top? I feel like the best play is watering down NZFs influence but honestly they seem kinda weak. Any one else voting primarily against a party?

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?

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?

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!

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...

My Dad has Dementia. He's voted in every election previously and is very political. However, he does now get confused easily about things, especially if they are new or out of the ordinary.

He says he wants to vote, I'm just a bit worried that when he gets into the booth he's going to forget what to do. He's also worried about cocking it up.

Any ideas?

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

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.

Bought today, thought it would be nice, tastes like it has perfume as the main ingredient, do not waste your money like we did!

it’s my first time voting this election and I’ve yet to do much research (cos I’ve been cramming exam studying), but all I see on social media about the election is pretty divided.

I’m not that well read up but I mostly see just parties bashing others and then promoting themselves. Sure that’s ‘campaigning’ but I barely see any parties on like the left or right ‘blocs’ wanting to collaborate with the other.

I see this with my circles too, people calling others ‘woke’ or ‘racist’ for voting a certain party. Feels like this election is so much more polarized than what I used to see briefly on the news.

Personally I feel like this bickering instead of finding common ground is slowing down so much progress and I see it on both sides of the spectrum. Like we kinda do need to take politics out of things like construction or medicine…

Maybe I’m naive or stating the obvious but I think my vote will be going to the party that can bring people together instead of driving division. We aren’t America and we shouldn’t aim to be like them. Keen to hear what you think. 😘

Article republished by 1news.

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

The paper:

GreenChris, McFarlaneDonald, GoodwinBen, BarrettPaul, HuangChye-Mei, AyresJessica, GibsonRichard, 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.

I have a lot of stuff I want to sell asap (somewhat of a liquidation, if you will) and was thinking of doing a little combination garage/yard sale + Halloween event, but honestly if I tried something like this and it flopped I might not recover.

I know as a society we’re slowly moving away from carrying cash, which might be a barrier (though I intend to offer alternatives if I go through with this) I’m just wondering if the current adult generation has any interest in idling about rifling through a strangers belongings.

https://files.catbox.moe/e1nv0t.jpg

I received that a few hours ago, I emailed WP about it (that .top/nz domain looked sketch as fuck) since I haven't been in one of their car parks in over a year and they sent back to me a pre-written scam alert message. Just wanted to share a heads-up. Below is the email I got back:

Good afternoon

We have been made aware of fraudulent SMS messages currently being sent to members of the public claiming to be from Wilson Parking and requesting payment for an alleged overdue parking notice. These messages contain links to external websites and are not legitimate communications from Wilson Parking.

If you have received one of these messages:

• Do not click any links contained within the SMS. Do not provide any personal, payment, or banking information. Report the incident via Text message to the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) by forwarding the scam text to 7726

• Delete the message from your device. If you are unsure whether you have an outstanding parking notice, please contact Wilson Parking directly through our official channels.

Wilson Parking takes the security of our customers seriously and is actively investigating these reports. We encourage customers to remain vigilant and always verify the legitimacy of any communication requesting payment before taking action.

If you have clicked the link or provided any personal or financial information, we recommend that you:

• Contact your bank immediately. Monitor your accounts for any suspicious activity.

Thank you for your continued vigilance and support.

Kind regards,

Wilson Parking & ParkMate Customer Care

Hi! I've been struggling finding a comfortable mattress. I'm currently on my third one. Issue is they are never like the ones I try in the showroom. First one was way too soft and I just sank into it. Second one arrived rock hard and never softened. I'm after a medium feeling mattress, definitely not firm. Have you had a good experience buying a mattress which matched what you tried in store or was very close to it? I was leaning towards Sleepyhead but I've read they arrive much, much harder than in the store. I'm afraid to buying anything because of this whole thing of them.never marching what's in store and not being able to return and get a refund for mattresses in New Zealand.

I'm also not looking for anything in a box like Ecosa etc. Thank you!