Rants & Raves: Awesome cycleway

Nelson Street cycleway. Photo / Supplied

Tell us what you love about life in New Zealand - and what needs to change. Email rantandrave @nzherald.co.nz

Rant

Some crooked mind broke my car's rear window, opened the bonnet, and took my battery just weeks before Christmas! The car was parked outside my house. This is my first experience of theft during my five years in New Zealand. I am extra cautious with pretty much everything now.
Rajiv

Rave

Yesterday I was standing in a supermarket queue (Countdown 277) with a couple of sweet little primary school-age girls in front of me. Each was happily and quite independently making a small purchase - and I was really struck by the kindness and respect shown to them by the checkout operator. When it was my turn I congratulated him on how very nice he had been to the girls. Children, the future, was his response. Wonderful to see these essential values in action.
Ann

Rant

To renew a passport online you need a RealMe identity. To have the identity verified a photograph needs to be taken at a post office. Both done and back online. Now I have to supply a photograph as I can't use the verified one because the departments are not linked. Why not?
Jocelyn

Rave

To the lovely lady who paid for my groceries at Farro (Constellation Drive) when my bank card was not accepted due to technical issues with the card issuer. Thank you again. My two young children who had had enough of Xmas shopping were delighted. They asked on the way out "Mummy, why did that lady pay for our shopping?" I said: "Because she is a very kind person." What an excellent lesson for my kids.
Bic

Rant

The East Coast Bays has many beautiful beaches and walkways. The Long Bay-Torbay-Browns Bay walkways are overgrown with weeds. A lot of walkways were created by PEP [Project Employment Programme] workers years ago. If the city council cannot afford to properly maintain them could another scheme be created whereby able unemployed could do this work? The walkways are the entrances to our most precious assets and tourists cannot be impressed at the current state.
Pam

Rave

My 9-year-old son says the new pink cycleway is "awesome". Tip for school holidays: follow the bike signs from Britomart up Grafton Gully and down Nelson St - all safe dedicated bike lanes. Well done Auckland.
Andrew