That, my friend, is a spider.

Probably a Whitetail, hard to tell from pic, but definitely a hunting spider, not a web-in-the-corner spider.

Not a white tail - legs are way to long.

Had one like the OP crawling up the mesh of an outside window the other evening - must be the season for them to be out and about.

Totally harmless - be nice to it - it probably keeps other creepie crawlies checked.

It's not a whitetail. The body is the wrong shape and colour.

It looks quite harmless to me.

I'll teach the dog to kill spiders on sight!  At least she would have a chance of catching a spider without destroying the house, unlike with crickets :p 

And yes I have a phobia of spiders after one crawled into my ear one night whilst asleep.  Pray you will never get to experience it! 

Removed one from the house today. They're bloody huge. Probably a Vagrant spider. They do come into houses in autumn. Had the odd one in other years as well.

Vagrant perhaps?

https://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/resources/identification/animals/bug-id/what-is-this-bug/bugs-with-legs/8-legs/spiders/vagrant-spider

Vagrant sounds about right by the looks of it.  Shes out in rural Auckland so it would make sense.  I'll tell her its a white tail and shes going to turn into spiderwoman since she thinks it bit her (it didnt!).  

alasta:

 

It's not a whitetail. The body is the wrong shape and colour.

 

It looks quite harmless to me.

 

It doesn't look harmless to me - spiders are my #1 phobia, so it's capable of scaring me to death at least.

As to identification, I reckon it's a male sheet web spider  (see 2nd photo down - of one on the back of person's hand).

Looks familiar (warning : some language NSFW)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsOsw-Yr9ws

askelon:

 

And yes I have a phobia of spiders after one crawled into my ear one night whilst asleep. 

 

Kill it with fire! I hate spiders too. The only one I like is the Spider-man.

askelon:

 

And yes I have a phobia of spiders after one crawled into my ear one night whilst asleep.  Pray you will never get to experience it! 

 

I had a tiny moth embed itself into my ear one night about a year ago - woke up to this thing going fruup, flruup, fruup every few minutes - I thought I'd finally gone insane.

Couldnt dig the thing out, couldnt flush it out - eventually my wife managed to extract it with a pair of tweezers. It wasnt lodged quite as far down as the eardrum, but yeh, it was maddening.

I wont be trimming my ear hair in future.

Cute, furry, what the hell could go wrong?