A road cone has been inexplicably left at the top of a 50-metre tree at Auckland's Symonds Street Cemetery for the past 6 months. Photo: Supplied
Auckland Council says it will remove a road cone left on top of a 50-metre tall tree after it forgot about it for almost six months.
Auckland resident Neil Coutinho shared a video of the mysteriously placed cone at Symonds Street Cemetery in Auckland CBD in August last year.
"There were a lot of articles going around at the time with Mayor Wayne Brown complaining about the overuse of road cones so I found it funny to see one on top of a pine tree in the middle of a cemetery.
"It [the video] was just a joke, it wasn't a formal complaint but I thought I'd tag the mayor and the council in it to see what would happen."
The council responded to his post on X, promising to look into the issue.
But Coutinho told RNZ he was surprised to see the cone still there months later.
"Someone from the council did reach out, but I guess no one followed up on it and it's still up there.
"It's quite iconic at this point, I think it should stay there."
Regional Arborists and Ecological Manager David Stejskal confirmed to RNZ that the council had been aware of the cone since Coutinho's video was posted on 30 August 2024.
"The job was delayed due to an oversight in our processing systems, which did not bring the issue to the appropriate team's attention until recently.
"We acknowledge this delay and are taking action to have the cone removed."
He said the cone was on public land and a two-person climbing arborist crew had been contracted to remove it at an estimated cost of $250.
Stejskal earlier condemned people stealing cones and putting them in unlikely places, known as "coning", and said having to remove them risked the safety of those involved and wasted ratepayers' money.
Mayor Brown, who has said he wanted to crack down on the number of road cones on the city's roads, declined to comment.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
