I Went Speed Dating in Christchurch - Here's What Happened

Nick and Eve heard horror stories from their single friends.

Messaging someone for a month… then nothing.
Spending every evening on the apps… only to keep seeing the same faces.
Expensive date nights… that led nowhere.

There had to be a better way.

What if New Zealand singles could skip the apps altogether and jump straight to the first date? Even better, what if they could make it a group first date and meet a whole room of singles at once?

That idea became Cupid Services, a family business running singles events across New Zealand with one goal: helping people meet and fall in love.

And I’m excited to have scored an invite to their next speed dating event!

If you hear “speed dating” and think retro, you’re not alone. It was big in the 1990s and 2000s, but it’s making a serious comeback. Interest in in-person singles events is surging globally as a result of dating app disillusionment. Singles are exhausted by bots, fake profiles, and flakiness. An in-person event means real people, real conversations, and a few hours instead of months of dead-end messaging.

That’s the promise, and here in Christchurch, Cupid Services is stepping into the gap. They offer themed and traditional speed dating events, with strict limits to guarantee a 1:1 ratio of men to women.

I’m incredibly curious what these events are like. I’ve never been to one before. What type of people will be there? How does it all work?

So, one quiet Thursday evening, I dressed to the nines and headed to Merivale to find out…