Online dating. Meeting someone over the internet either within your neighbourhood or the other end of the country. So much choice! For the sake of anonymity, we’re going to call our dating expert Daisy.

My holiday destination of choice over the Christmas New Year period was a location teaming with such a diverse range of people, I thought it was time to jump back online and explore some new dating territory.

It had been awhile since I had thrown myself back out into the dating world, and my town was hugely lacking in choice. But I wondered if maybe I could get lucky and find a holiday romance.

For those of you new to online dating, the most popular dating websites usually show people your location, so you can see exactly how far away the person is - even when they are not in their hometown. You’d be surprised how often you find people on holiday as well and just

looking for someone to hang out with. 

It wasn’t long before I connected with a man who noted my location was less than a 1km away.  

Camp Boy was from Wellington but holidaying in the South with just a hikers tent (probably not conducive to romance). I digress.

After some small talk about what we were both planning to do during our time off, and him asking me for sightseeing tips in the area, he made a joke saying, “imagine if I was right next door?”

“Freaky,” I instantly answered.

“Could be handy”, Camp Boy continued.

“Not if you’re a stalker,” I replied, immediately starting to feel the ‘ick.’

“It’s nice and quiet over here,” he pursued.

By this stage I’m already starting to see instant red flags. 

Who in their right mind would head over to a complete stranger's house (or tent for that matter), less than 1km away?

Would there be a candle lit dinner waiting and French champagne? Hardly likely. A man sitting in his underwear drinking beer? Quite possibly. Was I interested? Absolutely not.  

Despite the fact Camp Boy’s profile picture was impressive - there was no tempting me.  

Dangerous sprang to mind. Desperate even.  

Is this really how people roll these days? What happened to going for a walk together to find waterfalls?  

I decided to give him a lecture about online dating after many years in the game, because my holiday reading material wasn’t really thrilling me either, I had time on my hands and was in the mood for a little banter. 

I warned him about just hooking up with anyone.

“You could end up with someone who is batshit crazy,” I said. A drug addict who cleans your entire house out of material possessions and makes a run for it.” 

Except it didn’t matter with Camp Boy because his down sleeping bag was probably the only valuable thing with him.  

Disclaimer. The tent part only came out later… So at this stage I still assumed he was staying in someone’s house.   

I saw a man online recently who said on his profile “ if you’re on the ‘gear’ you are not welcome here.” 

He’d obviously learned the hard way with addicts.

I proceeded to continue my rant. “I’m sure there are plenty of other quick hook ups that won’t bore you with details of their day to day life and just come straight on over.”

“Sorry,” he said. “This is not really who I am. I have full respect for women like you,” he said.

I had already learned before from my earlier experiences online dating about being very careful about not getting to know someone too quickly.  

And how you ‘describe’ yourself to people on your profile is important too. 

My very first profile said I was looking for a bit of adventure and that men might have trouble keeping up with me. I was talking about my love of climbing mountains etc.

I soon realised that some men interpreted this as being a diva in the bedroom. After checking in with friends who laughed at my naivety, my profile was quickly edited.  

TUNE IN NEXT MONTH: Daisy will share one of her earliest dating experiences with a man who refused to leave her house on the third date. There’s also currently a man online that she dated in her 20s who hasn’t yet accepted her request to chat. It’s almost like the plot from a movie. So many lessons. So many stories to share.