BAY SUN: The jar collecting some of the last rays of Mount Maunganui summer sunshine. PHOTO/ANGE COPSON
Among the usual mix of used dining tables, mattresses and decorative plates available on Trade Me a bizarre, yet sweet, item has popped up for sale.
A jar of Mount Maunganui sunshine is on auction, with a $1 reserve.
The seller from Dunedin put up the "little jar of gold in the form of 100 per cent pure Mount Maunganui sunshine" on Wednesday to make people smile and brighten their day.
Seller Ange Copson told the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend she was just having a bit of a laugh.
Ms Copson, who was visiting Mount Maunganui for work for a couple of months, said she kept thinking how great the weather was up here and was talking with friends about how it was the sunny days she would miss most about being in Tauranga.
She took a jar to Mount Main Beach to bottle up some of the last rays of summer sun.
"There were lots of people walking past asking 'what are you doing?' and when I told them they said 'what a great idea!'"
When she got home Ms Copson put it up for sale on Trademe, and intends to sell it to the highest bidder.
"It's a nice gift - a memory of summer," she said.
In the item's description seller Ms Copson bemoaned the end of summer and impending winter.
"As autumn presses its cool little fingers on the back of your neck, everyone could do with a little extra dose of sunshine and happiness.
"Particularly those of us down south," she wrote.
It said the sunshine was captured on a "stunning, blue-skied, sunny, warm, 28 degree February summer's day".
Or, in case of dire emergencies and severe winter blues, open the jar and take a breath. Close it quickly though, you don't want it all to escape.
Ms Copson gave some helpful ideas on what to do upon buying the jar of sunshine, including "hug it" or "get a special backpack and carry it around with you".
"Sleep with it under a pillow (actually this might cause neck problems, so maybe just tuck it under the duvet). Stroke it for luck as you walk by. Sing it 'You are my sunshine' each morning in the shower - because it is.