Short note: As a property owner, noticed all the “iPropertyExpress” Periodic Inspection reports for any of my properties (where the property manager uses Inspection Express) and are more than a few weeks old have now all abruptly expired with no option to re-request a new link.
It seems the option to resend a new link only exists for new reports that are about a week old or less.
I was never informed of this policy change as a property owner.
Reached out to Inspection Express support directly and got back a non-committal answer (basically telling me to go back to my respective property managers).
Lesson is to download all reports as soon as you receive them.
ChatGPT Prompt: “Create an image of Chat GPT 5.2 lecturing a user.”
Result of a Prompt: “Create an image of Chat GPT 5.2 lecturing a user.”
Been a marked change in ChatGPT’s personality in the last few days. ChatGPT still works if you ask it to analyze anything or run speculative scenario models, but attempt any long form philosophical or systems-level enquiry, it will just go passive aggressive. Wouldn’t be surprised it was by design to reduce compute cycles / token usage at least for certain account types.
Car dependent, congested transport hellscape with key zones scattered all over the show. Worse of both worlds for Public Transport users and Drivers including business traffic.
No corridor protection for either Public Transit spines nor Motorway spines.
Any bus routes implemented in the area made to zig zag all over the place. Public transport typically taking 3-4 times longer than car in this area.
Diabolical urban planning that manages to be awful for both for Public Transport as well as cars
Large area served only by a handful of undersized traffic-light laden arterials (Ti Rakau / East Tamaki Road)
Lack of direct roading links into East Tamaki industrial area to the west and north means having to detour in the opposite direction before proceeding in the direction you want to go wasting time and causing congested clash points in traffic flow.
Ti Rakau Bridge is beyond capacity and is a real pinch point for traffic between the suburbs of Pakuranga and the Botany / East Tamaki area.
Eastern Busway (unlike the Northern busway) that is currently being built is full of at-grade intersections and I struggle to understand how, even with aggressive traffic signal prioritization is this going to successfully encourage modal shift.
Continued unrestrained sprawl out towards Ormiston / Flat bush ensures the pinch points East of the Tamaki river will remain under pressure for the foreseeable future. Residents having to cross existing already overloaded arterials to get out to the rest of Auckland.
All round a very poor show — Particularly for a city that is allegedly in a developed nation.
Update 28/02/2026: Had a chat with NZTA / AT at the Drury Open day 28th February 2026 to relay my concerns. In aggregate…
They understand the situation with Corridor protection and why it’s needed. They assure me that Mill Road and the extension to Pukekohe has now been protected.
They concur with my concerns around circuitous bus station designs agreeing that any buses services need to stop as close to the train platforms as practicable to enable efficient and timely transfers.
AT Travel Wise will relay my concerns regarding bus service provisioning to East Tamaki Industrial. In particular having direct Bus services to and from East Tamaki to terminate at Glen Innes (to better connect with TMK, 75, 65) instead of Panmure (where Bus Route 352 currently terminates at)
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We keep sprawling out while failing to protect needed future transport corridors. This is unusual for a city in a developed nation.
Look at the area East of the Tamaki River in Auckland. Endless sprawl without either a grade separated transit (busway or rail) spine or a motorway spine.
East Auckland lack of proper Urban planning outcome (Map from Open Street Maps)
Instead we have endless traffic light infested arterials. Worse, traffic lights that do not seem to be optimised to keep platoons of vehicles flowing smoothly in either direction
Even Worse, many of those newer developments such as Flat Bush and Ormiston aren’t any where near a bus service, so what are residents / households who move into the area going to do? Buy a fleet of cars adding ever more cars into an already deeply constrained Auckland wide roading network. Once household travel patterns becomes establish it is then very hard to reverse. This basically guarantees we will be stuck in a cycle of car dependency and abject congestion as a city for the foreseeable future.
It is clear (unlike cities in other developed countries) we have not learned from our past mistakes and this is personally the bit I find hardest to reconcile.
Of course once the concrete is laid down, it is often very difficult and costly to fix it later on especially if we haven’t reserved any corridors. Look at the Eastern Busway. We ended up having to acquire and demolish houses at huge cost. — I for one am going to say up front this project isn’t going to be the saviour of East Auckland as we believe it is going to be. Too many “at-grade” intersections, unlike the Northern Busway.
As an ordinary rate-paying resident, I’m at a total loss at what I can do. I’ve submitted my views where I can to the Council, AT and other government agencies involved both during consultations and outside of it but feel like I’m being stonewalled. I’m surprised transport advocates whether they are pro-PT or Pro-car haven’t also spotted this and kicked up a fuss.
I’ve started sending out emails and letters as a customer to the businesses who use these CCTV Parking Enforcement Companies (Parking Services Ltd, Smart Compliance Management and others) to manage their customer car park advising that I will no longer be shopping at their stores. I encourage everyone else who is similarly concerned to do like wise. Here is a template that you can base your own letter off…
Dear [Business],
I want to let you know why I will no longer be shopping at your store.
Your choice to employ a private parking enforcement company that relies on automated surveillance and punitive “breach notices” makes your car park feel hostile to customers.
I feel should be able to shop without fear of being tracked or fined $95 for a trivial or accidental mistake. I also don’t want to deal with the stress of disputing a notice that may be issued in error, which I understand happens often.
Respectfully, I encourage you to reconsider your parking management provider. In the meantime, I’ll be taking my custom elsewhere — and sharing my concerns with family and friends.
Other than, just going to have to let it be. If businesses chose to do this to their own customers then frankly they can do without my custom. Will just go elsewhere or buy it online.
Been having repeated unwanted phone calls from a guy calling himself “Mark” operating some investment firm billing themselves as Blue Rock Hong Kong. If you receive unsolicited cold calls from someone pushing some US stocks and purportedly representing Blue Rock HK, hang up immediately.
I’m aware there are other legitimate firms operating with the name Blue Rock including a Shenzhen furniture sourcing company of the same name. The red flags in this case is the cold calling offering stock investments together with the mention of “Blue Rock HK”
Bought a battery from Mr. Positive (online NZ battery store) for a UE Boombox BT speaker.
While dispatch was pretty quick and orderly, With in a week of receiving it, the battery regularly stopped accepting a charge and then failed completely some weeks later. Looks like a “thermistor” fault / short circuit.
After sending it back and a bit of chasing up over a month. Got a refund on the order. However, I feel this was a bit long for redress
If you employ Parking Services Ltd to manage your customer car park, you WILL lose me as a customer.
There have been repeated reports of this Papamoa Beach based company issuing inflated breach notices and even incorrectly to genuine paying customers of some businesses.
Aside from the moral concerns of a private company charging an inflated breach fee to the public, as a customer my concerns are that…
I certainly don’t want to risk the stress and wasted time of dealing with disputing an incorrectly issued notice (which if the news reports are anything to go by, they regularly do) and…
I certainly do not at all appreciate having some firm monitoring (via CCTV) my car park movements like a hawk for the slightest breach ready to pounce and issue with me a $85 – $95 breach notice.
If I see the Parking Services Ltd (PS Ltd) logo at your site, I will simply take my business elsewhere and go to your competitors and I will encourage friends and family to do so likewise explaining my reasons why. A line has to be drawn regarding these sorts of practices.
THINK TWICE before choosing to subject your customers to this invasive monitoring
Note: This is an entirely separate organization to the Wilson parking’s owned Parking Enforcement Services. “Parking Services Limited” appears to be a smaller outfit run by an individual out of a residential address in Papamoa Beach.
Unfortunately, my recent experience with the Office of the Ombudsman over a general inquiry left me feeling pretty disappointed.
I approached the Office as a member of the public in good faith with what I believed was a straightforward, informal enquiry. Before lodging a formal complaint, I wanted to confirm whether my concerns regarding the actions of a local government body were within their remit. This was done following the suggestions provided by the Office’s own website and their own online help tool.
The response I received, however, from Ms Rebecca Chivers felt unduly curt and dismissive — more in the tone of a formal rejection than an attempt to guide or assist a member of the public. It gave the impression that my contact was an inconvenience rather than an opportunity for the Office to fulfill its stated mission of accessibility and impartiality.
This first impression was at odds with the values and helpful approach presented on their public website.
I have therefore provided feedback to the Office about ensuring the accuracy and completeness of the information on their website, so that members of the public can better understand what issues are within scope before making contact.
Disclaimer: This post is my personal opinion as a concerned member of the public and is for informational purposes only. It does not constitute legal advice. If you are the recipient of such a breach notice from a private parking firm, suggest consider speaking to a legal advisor or the Citizens Advice Bureau.
In recent years, I’ve watched with alarm and indignation as remote private parking enforcement companies like Parking Services Ltd and Smart Compliance Management Ltd have gained a greater foothold in New Zealand. While I’ve personally never received a parking breach notice from either of them, what I’ve seen and what others have highlighted I feel raises serious questions about fairness, legality, and ethics.
Piazza at Hamilton Gardens. Little / short roadtrip to get out of Auckland for a while to collect my thoughts + a short hike at the North end of Hakarimata ranges. Trails appear to be rather quiet currently.
Hamilton Gardens Piazza
In other news. Yes, to confirm the stories on the grapevine, I did indeed purchased yet another rental property earlier this year. (Why people seem to be so fascinated at this, I wouldn’t know…)
There’s little I can do to fix the state of the state of humanity or the world as an individual. Can only ever hope to look after my little part of it and “bear witness” I suppose. I’ve said my piece, and shall hunker down, rest and “protect my fire” as it were.
Fed up with the quality of Web search these days, gradually switching over to use more ChatGPT, DeepSeek in order to at least point me in the right direction. That way, have been able to find what I need sooner.
With that said, I understand it’s not going to stay that way. In time AI chat will too get polluted in the same way as web search as the pressure to turn a profit increases.
The world is changing, people are changing. I don’t necessarily agree with (nor understand) the way the world is currently headed, but other than continuing to express my views and concerns to elect representatives, “chewing the fat” with friends and family over the challenges facing society, participating in public consultations held by any government agency, discussing civics in a broader setting and continuing to partake in civic discourse, I otherwise feel powerless to effect any change as an individual.
Just another day out of the house… Someone causing a scene and getting arrested at Britomart.
In a way, it feels like some sort of generalized regression or devolution is slowly creeping in to the human species, but can’t put my finger on the root of it. Closer to home, It just seems some kind of ‘strangeness’ is happening. E.g. Everytime I head out, chances are very good that I will witness at least one incident of people losing their shit in a public freakout. People obviously under the influence smashing things, public shouting matches between groups of people, physical assault along with other public disorder incidents. In truth, it is beginning to feel like scenes out of a zombie movie at times as obvious drug use continues to increasingly grip society.
As my uncle said to me, you can’t save the world and you know what? He is 100% right. Going to be hunkering down, closing up a bit, sticking to my knitting as it were, and focussing more on taking care of the people who matter the most in my life. (Engaging Some sort of self defense mode as it were).
I’ve tried (and I shall continue to try – through continuing to engage in the civic process over issues such as housing affordability, inequality, infrastructure, public health, transport, public safety, among other social issues), but the reality is, there’s little else I can do and anything I do in the overall scheme of things has little impact on the prevailing. Embrace human imperfection, I guess. Even if any fix for any given social issue may seem glaringly obvious.
I’m also anticipating in due course, I will probably eventually stop updating this site entirely. I’m seeing little point in continuing to write and spell out my thoughts here.
