Kerikeri's 'mystery man' pays it forward in coffee for dozens of strangers

Faith Martin and Jordyn Howearth of the Way Cup coffee kiosk in Kerikeri, where a "mystery man" has been spreading kindness and free coffee. Photo / Peter de Graaf

A "mystery man" has been brightening mornings in Kerikeri by paying for strangers' coffees.

About 10.30am on Monday the man called in to Way Cup, a drive-through coffee kiosk on Kerikeri Rd, and asked barista Jordyn Howearth if she did "pay it forward".

When Howearth said yes, he pressed a bundle of banknotes and coins totalling $160 into her hand.

"I was so shocked. I asked him, 'Are you sure?' and he said, 'I just want to be kind'. And before I'd even finished saying thank you he was off, walking up Kerikeri Rd. He's our mystery man."

His gesture paid for coffees for the next 30-plus customers.

"Everyone was super-happy. I just told them to make sure they paid it forward as well."

Faith Martin, whose sister Claire owns the kiosk and whose mum Rhona roasts the coffee, said she didn't know the man's name but knew he lived locally because she had seen him before. On another occasion he had left $20 to pay it forward but, curiously, he never bought a coffee for himself.

She described him as casually dressed and aged in his mid-30s.

"Pay it forward" is an expression for repaying a good deed with an act of kindness to another person, usually a random stranger. The idea of paying it forward goes back at least to ancient Greece but the phrase was popularised by the 1999 novel Pay it Forward and a movie of the same name the following year.