Hi everyone living in Herne Bay - look at the Auckland Transport site: at.govt.nz and search Herne Bay Residential Parking Zone. They are proposing a 2 hour parking restriction for vehicles without permits ($70 per year). I'm on Wallace St and there are now workers coming in and parking in the street and getting their electric scooters out to go into town. It's becoming difficult for me to park outside my house and will only worsen once Countdown opens on Kelmarna, as I imagine the car park will be for customers only and staff will park in the side streets all day. You can give feedback until 18 July 2021 - so please support this!

We think this was the best apartment on The Block NZ: Firehouse in Kingsland. Stacy and Adam did a stellar job, and now it is going to auction for a second time, on July 28. 2021. Great character apartment, great location.

Just wondering which other suburbs got this pathetic little publication in the letter box recently. I am guessing not people in Mangere or maybe Otara. Made by whoever is responsible for the website 1law4all. As a 4th generation Stewart Island pakeha who rents a little hobbithole in the Bay of Hernes, known by most as Herne Bay, I find this drivel pathetic. The ongoing reference to maori as ‘part maori’ is one of the most pathetic arguments I have heard to discredit anything to do with maoritanga I know. I have heard it for decades ... “there are no maori they’re only part maori anyway”! The website rants about maori being stone age, these are people who are acknowleged as being possibly the greatest navigators of all time, who had superb structure to their communal living etc etc. Yes there was warfare between tribes as there was between pakeha tribes of old & continues to be between pakeha tribes now. I abhor all warfare, but at least in days of old maori warfare was had using handheld weaponry, not the type of cowardly ’shoot ‘em at 100m away’ tactics that this person is trying to use to enflame any racial disharmony that already exists out there. Not being able to acknowledge that maori were actively hunted in the era of land theft & also subdued by government, councils & law enforcement right up until at least the 1970/80s, displays a form, of deep bitterness that springs from incredible insecurity. I personally believe maori have absolutely justifiable grievances to address, & this or these people at 1law4all, display a total lack of human empathy & compassion. It exhibits exactly what they are trying to denounce maori for, an inability to grow & evolve. I pity any children born into these peoples bubble of seething anger.

Bit of history, my frail 88 year old mother moved up to Auckland early this year, so I can keep an eye on her. She left most of her furniture behind as it wouldn't fit into her apartment. Beginning of April she ordered a new couch from Nick Scali, St Luke's as she hadn't brought her couch with her. They told us 12 weeks delivery which would have brought the delivery date to early July. We then got a phone call from Nick Scali to tell us there had been a delay of 6 weeks - new tentative delivery date 18th August. As you can imagine I wasn't best impressed, since she moved up here Mum has had only dining room chairs (padded seat, wooden back) to sit on to watch TV so if she wants to get comfortable she has to go to bed and listen to the radio (no TV in her bedroom). We did take her round one of our armchairs to sit in but she can't use it as she can't get out of it. When I pointed out her difficulties to the Manager at Nick Scali, St Luke's and asked for either a refund or the loan of a couch till hers arrived he gave me an email address entitled 'delaysatnickscali' and that was the best he said he could do. An email to that address got absolutely NO reply nor follow up from the St Luke's branch. We are resigned to Mum having to sit in a dining room chair for a further 6 weeks - what can you do if a company refuses to engage with you? The upshot is - DON'T buy anything from Nick Scali (unless by some small chance they have it in stock) they operate a business model where they don't seem to hold any stock - it all comes in from overseas. They recently 'starred' on Fair Go for just this problem - the lady that went to Fair Go was lucky - she got a refund, apology and a bunch of flowers along with the promise that they would try to do better, rubbish that was just for TV they haven't done any better for us. Thanks for reading and if I can stop others falling into Nick Scali's clutches all the better. Debbie