Mail oddities addressed

Helen Galea among some of the 10,000 lost parcels at the CourierPost warehouse in South Auckland. Photo / Steven Mcnicholl

Postal crew kept busy tracking down intended recipients.

An expensive designer handbag, a preserved scorpion, human ashes and an unwrapped tennis ball are some of the 100,000 "undeliverable" mail items sent via New Zealand Post that have been destroyed or sold in the past year.

Auckland customer services manager Helen Galea said about 10,000 items a month arrived at the South Auckland mail centre with addresses that couldn't be read.

Three staff spent their days on the internet and phone trying to find the intended recipients of the mystery parcels, she said. About 90 per cent of the lost parcels ended up at the correct address or were returned to sender within weeks.

But sometimes that was not possible and the postal service was forced to destroy remaining items or send them to auction.

In recent months a four-figure Louis Vuitton handbag and expensive jewellery had gone under the hammer and the items went for bargain prices. The bag - estimated to retail for $5000 - sold for $234 and two identical 9ct gold sapphire and diamond dress rings sold for $29 and $69.

A 9ct gold cultured pearl ring sold for $49 and a 20ct golden dome ring sold for $119. A computer tower with damaged packaging raised the most money at auction, selling for $1400.

Auctions took place four times a year and money raised - about $25,000 annually - went to New Zealand Post coffers.

Galea said some of the more unusual undeliverable items included a variety of sex toys and human ashes. "I think the thing that stood out for me was a scorpion in a bottle. We sent that to Customs to be destroyed."

And once, a tennis ball - minus wrapping paper and a stamp - arrived in the post with a partial address written on it.

She said the centre had also commandeered an unclaimed stuffed toy around three years ago as its mascot. "We call it Undelly - it's short for undeliverable."

But the determination shown by New Zealand Post's mail troubleshooters ensured many poorly addressed items still managed to be delivered.

Recently a gift for a baby arrived from the United Kingdom with just a name, suburb and city on the package.

Galea said the team hit the phones ringing every person with the same surname in the phone book until they found a relative who pointed them in the right direction.

The package was eventually delivered to the new mum.

Galea said delivery problems usually arose with parcels sent from overseas that used international address formats or incomplete local addresses.

Other packages suffered from poor wrapping. Those covered in thin Christmas paper rarely made it under the intended Christmas tree.

For missing post queries, contact: www.nzpost.co.nz/contact-support