A Northlander who met her "soulmate" online 13 years ago is urging people to be cautious when using new dating applications such as Tinder.
Donna Allpress of Kaikohe says while there has been a surge in popularity of online dating sites and applications such as Tinder - with which people can find out who is available in particular locations - people need to remember to be safe.
She met her partner, Vanessa Aarsen, in a chatroom more than a decade ago, and the pair wed in one of Northland's first marriages of two women in March. "I'm lucky - I met my soulmate online," she said.
Tinder's director of communications, Rosette Pambakian, said hundreds of Northlanders were turning to sites or apps such as Tinder to find love - or overnight relationships - and it was a nationwide trend.
Tinder is an application people can download to their phones, with which they upload a profile with a picture and can select potential mates based on proximity. It's considered more of a casual encounter meeting place.
"We now have over six per cent of New Zealand's total population on Tinder. Our user base in New Zealand is growing by half a per cent per day," she said.
Ms Allpress though is urging people to be cautious with how they approach potential partners from online dating websites and applications. "You need to be very careful - there are a lot of crazies out there," she said.
One of Ms Allpress' friends had a situation where the person contacted online was an imposter. She also knew of someone who nearly got involved in an online romance scam.
"I wouldn't rely on online dating purely - you need to have that contact [such as phone calls]. You've got to do your homework. Be very, very wary."
Her advice to those who met potential mates online was to make the first date a group one. "Safety in numbers. Go for the group date. I would never, ever go alone - you've got to be safe."
Things had changed since she met Vanessa online, she said. "Back when we started chatting there were individual chatrooms. You didn't use a real name. We didn't do the whole profile thing. Her and I started talking [online] for a couple of months, then I asked for her phone number and ended up with a huge phone bill."