Delivery, returns & privacy

Delivery

We currently deliver within New Zealand only. International ordering is not yet available.

The complete collection

NZ$149 covers all twelve numbered envelopes in one ribbon-tied collection and urban New Zealand courier delivery. Rural delivery costs an additional NZ$6, making the total NZ$155. Please select the rural shipping option in Stripe if the recipient has a rural delivery address. The checkout does not automatically classify rural addresses.

Once orders open, complete collections are dispatched within three working days of ordering. Courier travel time is additional. Tracking details will be provided when available.

The six-month postal experience

NZ$189 covers the complete twelve-envelope story and all twelve standard New Zealand mailings, including rural addresses. This is one upfront payment, with no recurring subscription.

Our first story dispatch is 20 November 2026. We then post on the 5th and 20th of each month, moving to the next working day if a date falls on a weekend or New Zealand public holiday. Each recipient starts with envelope 1 and receives one envelope per dispatch until all twelve have been sent.

Orders close three working days before each dispatch. Orders received after a cutoff begin on the following available dispatch date. For this launch, orders received by 17 November 2026 are scheduled to begin on 20 November 2026. We will confirm your starting date by email.

Individual letters travel by standard post without tracking. Postal arrival times vary and letters may occasionally arrive close together or out of sequence; please use the envelope numbers to read in order. Dispatch dates are posting dates, rather than guaranteed arrival dates.

Addresses, gifts & delivery problems

For a gift, use your own contact email and enter the recipient’s name and address in the shipping section. Check these details before paying. If an address changes or you notice a mistake, email us promptly with your order reference. We will update mailings that have not yet been dispatched where possible.

If an envelope or collection is delayed, missing, damaged or incomplete, contact hello@thelittlestorytrove.com. We will investigate and arrange an appropriate remedy. We remain responsible for resolving delivery problems where required by New Zealand consumer law; you do not have to resolve a claim with the carrier yourself.

Working days are Monday to Friday, excluding applicable New Zealand public holidays.

Returns & cancellations

If something is wrong

If your order arrives damaged, has missing or incorrect contents, or does not match its description, email hello@thelittlestorytrove.com with your order reference and a description of the problem. Photos of the item and packaging can help us investigate, if available.

We will provide the repair, replacement, refund or other remedy required by the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993. The appropriate remedy depends on the nature of the problem and your legal rights. We will cover reasonable return-postage costs where required for a valid fault claim. Contact us for the return address and arrangements before posting anything back.

You do not need to keep every envelope unopened to exercise your rights for a faulty or misdescribed product. Nothing in this policy limits your rights under New Zealand consumer law.

Change of mind & cancellation

If you would like to cancel before the complete collection or your first story envelope has been dispatched, email us as soon as possible. If we receive your request before dispatch, we will cancel the order and refund the amount paid.

After dispatch, we do not offer change-of-mind returns or refunds. For the six-month experience, this means after the first envelope has been dispatched. This does not affect your rights if the product or delivery fails to meet the guarantees required by law.

Where a refund is due, we will arrange it through the original payment method where possible. Your payment provider may take additional time to display the refund.

Privacy statement

This statement covers the Kōwhai House website, orders and customer enquiries operated by Little Story Trove in New Zealand. For privacy questions, access requests, corrections or complaints, contact our privacy contact at hello@thelittlestorytrove.com.

What we collect & why

When you order, we collect the buyer’s name and email, the recipient’s name and delivery address, billing details, order and payment references, payment status, and the information you provide in enquiries. A phone number may also be provided through the payment service.

We use this information to process and deliver your order, manage the twelve-envelope mailing schedule, send order and delivery updates, answer enquiries, handle refunds or disputes, prevent fraud, and meet accounting and legal obligations. Without the necessary contact, payment and delivery information, we cannot fulfil an order.

Website and payment providers may also process technical information such as IP addresses, browser details and security logs to operate and protect their services.

Email newsletter

If you choose to join our free email newsletter, you will be taken to our signup page hosted by beehiiv. We use beehiiv to store your subscription details and send collection news, story previews and gift ideas. You can unsubscribe using the link in any newsletter. Signing up for emails does not purchase or subscribe you to the paid postal story collection.

Gift recipients

If someone buys a gift for you, we receive your name and delivery details from that buyer to send the collection or scheduled letters. Please provide another person’s details only when you are authorised to do so, and share this privacy statement with them. We will take reasonable steps to notify recipients about the use of their information as required by the Privacy Act, for example through a notice included with the first mailing. Gift recipients are not added to a marketing list because they receive a gift.

Payments & service providers

Payments are processed by Stripe. Full card numbers and card security codes are entered with Stripe rather than collected by this website or stored by Little Story Trove. Stripe supplies the order and payment information we need to fulfil and manage your purchase.

We share necessary information with the service providers used to operate the website, process payments, send email and deliver orders. These include Stripe for checkout, OpenAI Sites and its hosting infrastructure for this website, Airtable and Make for order records and automation, our email provider, and NZ Post or the courier delivering your order. Some providers process or store information overseas. We use providers and arrangements intended to protect personal information as required by New Zealand privacy law.

We do not sell customer information. We do not add buyers or recipients to promotional mailing lists merely because an order is placed. Any marketing signup will be separate and voluntary.

Website visits & advertising

We use the Meta Pixel to measure visits to this website and help assess and improve our Facebook and Instagram advertising. It sends information about page visits, such as the page address, browser and device information, IP address and cookie identifiers, to Meta. Meta may associate this activity with a Facebook or Instagram account and use it for advertising measurement and personalisation under its own policies.

We also use Meta’s Conversions API to measure completed purchases and assess our advertising. Our order automation uses Stripe and Make to send Meta the purchase time, value and currency, checkout page address, order reference and a hashed version of the buyer’s email address. Hashing transforms the email address before it is sent; Meta can use it to match a purchase with an account. Gift recipients’ names and delivery addresses, gift messages and card details are not included in these advertising events. Browser cookie controls do not by themselves stop this server-based purchase measurement.

The pixel may use cookies. You can limit or block cookies through your browser settings and manage advertising preferences in your Meta account. See Meta’s cookie policy for information about its use of cookies and available controls.

Storage, retention & your choices

We take reasonable safeguards to protect order and customer information, and limit access to people and providers who need it for the purposes above. We retain information for as long as needed to fulfil orders, resolve issues and meet legal or accounting requirements, then securely delete it or remove identifying details when it is no longer needed.

You may request access to, or correction of, personal information we hold about you by emailing us. We may need to verify your identity before releasing information. If you have a privacy concern, contact us first; you may also contact the New Zealand Office of the Privacy Commissioner.

If our services or information practices change, we will update this statement and its date.