Auckland Airport's lost property manager Kelvin Jiang with the teddy bear handed in that could belong to a child in Northland.
Auckland Airport's lost property manager Kelvin Jiang with the teddy bear handed in that could belong to a child in Northland.
Somewhere in Northland there could a be a child facing a less than ideal Christmas after losing their favourite teddy bear.
But the team at Auckland Airport have the bear in custody and want to reunite it with its owner, and they think they may be in Northland.
Auckland Airport's lost property team are hoping to reunite a young traveller with their cuddly bunny before Christmas.
Kelvin Jiang, who manages the airport's lost property office, said the homesick bunny was handed in from the domestic terminal on November 10.
There were three flights from Auckland to Whangārei that day and three to Kerikeri and the airport hopes somebody in Northland can help reunite bunny with owner.
The Whangārei flights were NZ8220, departing at 9.05am; flight NZ8222, at 3.45pm and flight NZ8226, at 7.05pm.
The Kerikeri departures were flight 8266, leaving at 9.05am; flight NZ8270, at 4pm and flight NZ8272 at 7.35pm.
"We have thousands of lost items handed in every year, and some are very special. I'm sure someone will be missing their bunny – we'd like to get them back together,'' Jiang said.
"This year, because of the effect Covid-19 has had on passenger numbers, there have been fewer items handed in from around the international terminal.
The lost teddy bear at Auckland Airport that a child in Northland may be missing badly and the airport wants to reunite them.
"But with domestic running at around two-thirds of last year's passenger volumes, there's still plenty of items that get left behind. Whenever possible, we do what we can to get these items back to their owners – it's easier to get things back to their owner when it's a domestic traveller than for international."
Even if the owner of the bunny cannot be found, it's likely to end up being loved by another child.
Clothing, safe food items, sunglasses and toys in the lost property department eventually go to Mangere East Family Services – that's where the bunny could end up if its home cannot be found.
"Earlier this year, we had a 3kg bag of onions and a massive bag of toilet rolls," he said. "It all goes to the charity – and they do great work in the local community.
"Last month, a surfboard was handed in at the domestic terminal – we managed to get that back to its owner. At the start of the year, we had bicycles and wheelchairs handed in. We've had paintings, power tools, musical instruments – there are a couple of ukuleles in there right now.
"False teeth get handed in – because of the health risk, we dispose of them straight away."
If you know a young traveller who was in the domestic terminal on November 10 and has since realised they've lost a very cuddly bunny, please get in touch via email with lostproperty@aucklandairport.co.nz.
