Rants & Raves: Patron saint of parking

A ten dollar note, like the one used to pay for parking at Auckland Airport on Sunday. Photo / File

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

Rave
A big thank-you to the lovely lady who paid our parking fee with a $10 note at Auckland Airport on Sunday when our Eftpos card didn't work in the pay machine. We didn't know how to get our parking ticket back out and were starting to get anxious. I hope you read this and will know how much we appreciated your kindness. Thanks also to the people behind us who were so patient.
Jim & Pat

Rant
Estate agents who phone in the evening having got my number, call me by my first name and ask if I want to sell my home make me angry. Unfortunately, I am too polite to tell them what I really think. If and when I decide to sell, I certainly won't be calling them. Some of my neighbours are equally harassed.
Margaret

Rave
Our faith in teenage boys has been restored. After the torrential rain one morning this week, a young man named Felix from Mt Albert Grammar School removed his jumper and wiped down the bus-stop seat outside Parkside Cafe so two elderly gentlemen could sit down. He did so without hesitating and without being asked. Well done, Felix.
David and Nicola Tombs

Rant
When will the short-sighted council see the serious need for an efficient monorail system to ferry overseas passengers from Auckland Airport into the CBD? All they have to do is build it next to the motorway system. New Zealand and Auckland in particular are way behind in this area. Come on, council, get with the programme.
Maxine

Rave
We were in the New World supermarket car park in Devonport on Monday. It was raining and my war-veteran husband struggled to get into the passenger seat because his sore right hip and bad right leg meant he could not bend his knee properly. Then his shoes slipped on the wet ground and he skidded. I could not budge him on my own, so went for help. Fortunately, the car-park attendants wear "bibs" saying, "Ask if you need help". So I did, and they gave it. With a concerned male shopper holding the door, the two men were able to push my husband into the car. Thanks a lot, guys, you were great.
The Whytes

Rant
The road surface of Greys Ave is a disgrace - bumpy, patchy and rough, a trial for both the car and its occupants. The road is not even up to Third World standards.
Michael