Victoria, 33, of Christchurch, said there was a kind of switch that went off about five years ago which prompted a lot of life changes. As well as switching professions and buying a house, she decided to make a concerted effort to meet Mr Right.
"Internet dating was quite a good way of meeting fellas because they weren't available anywhere else."
The process wasn't immediate. "My profile is created at a US-based millionaire dating site millionairecupid.com. I met quite a lot of interesting guys and it helped me decide what I did and didn't want (from a relationship)."
She got stood up once, "which wasn't very nice", but overall she found internet dating a positive experience.
As far as safety issues went, she told friends where she was going. "I didn't meet anybody I thought was really weird they were fairly nice guys but I was careful to meet in a public place and tell people where I was going," says the bubbly blonde.
"I never put myself in any danger and the guys were normal to a certain degree. They just didn't suit me."
That is until Chris, 32, came along. "Then I got this really nice email from a guy who looked normal. There wasn't any weirdness and we liked talking about the same sort of things."
They met for coffee in August 2005, began seeing each other and the rest is history. Chris asked Victoria to marry him in February 2007 and they married at Riccarton House in April.
"If you are on the right place, I think you can find somebody if you're careful and do it right, but I do worry about young girls who get themselves into tricky situations and perhaps aren't old enough or wise enough to get themselves out of it."
Victoria also believes about 60 per cent of the men who have dating profiles online are married or already in a relationship. "You can tell. They aren't online in the evenings, they don't want to meet anywhere public and that sort of thing."
Wellingtonian Cathy, 37, did a bit of internet dating on and off for a couple of years before she finally met the love of her life, Liam, 46. "I wasn't really into going to pubs and clubs, and none of my friends had any eligible singles for me. I had a few workmates at the time who were having a go on the internet, and I thought, what have I got to lose"? My profile is online two days later at a wealthy men dating site wealthychats.com
Cathy took a proactive approach. "If I thought they sounded interesting, I sent them a `Hi' message, and something most women don't seem to do I was keen to meet them quite quickly.
"I wasn't into the whole chatting-online-forever, because my theory was, worst case scenario, we meet and don't hit it off, I still have an OK sort of date, get to meet someone new, have a nice meal and nice conversation."
She found online chat often built up unrealistic expectations. "I don't believe there's any way the virtual world can really represent who someone really is."
Cathy didn't have any really horrible dating experiences. "No-one turned up and went `Ew, yuck! How revolting!'," she laughs.
She says that may have been because she was always upfront about her looks. "Because I'm not a skinny person, I would always make that really clear. I didn't think there was any point in lying or misrepresenting myself."
It was different with Liam. She'd seen his profile on the website but didn't think he was the kind of person who'd be interested in her, so didn't contact him. "It was a nice photo but I thought it made him look really intellectual and really deep."
Instead, Liam messaged her online after seeing her profile. They messaged a few times online, then he texted her cellphone a few times and finally he rang her. "We finally met and clicked instantly.
I was really surprised because I'd never experienced that before.
"We just talked the whole night. We went to the Lido (restaurant) for dinner and they started packing up around us so we had to leave, then we went to Midnight Espresso (cafe) and spent ages there talking, so we were out for quite a few hours.
"Eventually, he dropped me home and didn't give me a kiss goodnight, but within a couple of days we met up again and had a picnic together which was really awesome."
That was more than three years ago and they've been together ever since. "We have always decided that our anniversary is the day we met."
