Ask Phoebe: Names of new city officials all on website

The Auckland Council website. Photo / Supplied

Q. After all the hullabaloo over the Super City, where can I find a comprehensive list of all newly elected officials, including the licensing trusts of West Auckland?

- Russell Finnemore, Whenuapai.

A. Go to aucklandcouncil.govt.nz and click on "elected representatives" to find the final results for the council and local boards. Type "health boards" or "licensing trusts" in the search engine and you can get the final results for those bodies as well.

Q.The Herald had a brief article this week about a scheme to safely recycle electronic goods such as computers and cellphones, but had no information about collection points. Can you help please?

- John Foster, Auckland.

A. www.eday.org.nz has all the information you need about drop-off points, what can and can't be recycled, and times and the dates. If you can't check online, collection day is this Saturday, between 9am and 3pm.

Collection points in Auckland are on the North Shore, at Carpark 2, Smales Farm, via the Shakespeare Rd extension; in Manukau, in the old Manukau City Council's car park, access from Wiri Station Rd; and on Waiheke Island, in the Waiheke Freight yard at 15 Tahi Rd, Ostend. There are a further 50 or so drop-off points around the country.

Since eDay started in 2007, about 196,000 items have been safely recycled, diverting 2337 tonnes of electronic waste from landfills.

Q. We were discussing the latest Lotto winner the other day, and remarking that one always reads that such-and-such a shop sold the winning ticket. This raised the question of whether the online Lotto ticket option has ever sold the winning ticket, and what the odds were.

- Dennis O'Kane, Auckland.

A. There have been no Powerball winners who bought their ticket online, but a millionaire was created in July who had used the MyLotto option, and he/she was not the only one. Several punters have chosen this way and got lucky, including Keno winners.

As about 95 per cent of Lotto tickets are sold through retail outlets, the odds of buying a winning ticket online are about one in 20, or 5 per cent.

And for a bit of background information, the first Lotto ticket in New Zealand was sold in 1987, Powerball started in 2001, and the MyLotto option was brought onstream in 2008.

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Motorists using the Northwestern Motorway in the next few days should be aware of another of this year's exceptionally high tides that is likely to flood parts of the motorway.

From this Saturday until next Wednesday, tides of up to 3.6m may affect the causeway between the Patiki Rd interchange and the Rosebank Rd bridge, as well as the cycleway beside the motorway. There have been seven such tides this year.

Do you live in Auckland? Do you have a problem you want solved? Phoebe Falconer answers your queries every Tuesday and Thursday. Email askphoebe@nzherald.co.nz