Ginza. Life in New Zealand is light years behind.
Continuing in our Migrant Tales, first hand accounts of the migrant experience of New Zealand.
Today’s tale was written by a financially secure Kiwi who has just returned from Asia after leaving New Zealand in the 1980s. During that time he built a successful company abroad. He and his partner have returned home to catch up with ‘the great outdoors’ and to probably raise a family, however their frustrations with the country are likely to cause them to leave before much longer.
Here’s why.
Here is some sober truth from a successful, Kiwi returnee..whom is really now a full fledged foreigner in NZ!
First..let me say I really enjoyed these above comments alot. So much truth.
I am a “Kiwi” whom left here in the 80’s and just returned and after 2 years of in and out are thinking about Canada or the USA or England or if my wife can handle it..France!
My background..I left in the 80’s in my early 20’s due to total frustration over the total lack of decent job prospects. I am now back after being financially successful overseas, leaving a CEO post of a small, but very successful international firm..I have returned and are finding it all very interesting on just how this place runs or rather does not run.
Luckily housing is not an issue in the sense I jumped on the housing wagon before it jumped in several years ago and live in a good area and without any silly housing loans . However the rest of it has some major problems. These are first the lack of intelligent people you can converse with..except English, American or others from overseas.I also remembered that when I left in the 80’s my friend were all Japanese with almost no fellow “white” Kiwi friends..I now remember why..My parents exposed me to overseas trips to Europe when young and I was not into drunken house parties and hated rugby. I still hate the “kiwi” culture that has got worst in the sense of these crazy tattoos that look terrible and the gut renting “rugby” which I have always hated since a kid.
So why did I come back..it was to do with being tired of Asia, needing a good break and loving boating, fishing and hiking..and a supportive, open minded, highly educated , beautiful wife by my side and a lovely daughter keen on the “nice , easy lifestyle of NZ”…but we are quickly rethinking!
Yet despite the attraction moving back here for the great outdoors we have found it frustrating in many ways.
One big issue is the lack of decent opportunities to share your business skills with people whom deserve to be shared with. 90% + of “kiwis” , including so called big company CEO’s are not well educated and not very intelligent. They also lack vision past looking into a beer bottle. They think small, low risk and are just not worth the effort to talk to, as their intellectual levels are so low. Oh “sh@t”..guess that was another good reason I left in the 80’s!
Food sucks here. Its nearly double London prices for most items, even taking in account the forex rates and the quality is typically half as good. There is a lack of quality fruit..most is chill stored too long and overpriced..double or triple of M &S or even Mitsukoshi in Ginza, Fish is cr@p..smelly, badly presented, often thawed out and old ..and yes..you got it..3 times the price of Japan and of such low quality it would never be sold to humans in Japan..exception is fresh mussels.
GST is crap in NZ..15% on everything..including food items. Its crazy and forces you to lose alot of disposable income on already overpriced items
Housing is crazy..some of the worst quality and worlds highest prices..Auckland now…NZD 1M gets you a “sh+tbox” worst than a dump-pad small apartment in Asia. 4 Million gets you are more expensive “sh@tbox”landed house in my suburb..which is still a crafty old, crappy, uninsulated home.
Tradesmen..well..lets say the truth..with few exceptions..very overpriced and rubbish quality period. Worst and most expensive in the world.
Legal system..cr@p..small claims is a “kangaroo” court based on all claims to NZD 25K now and run by crooks and arbitrators whom have no legal background and disregard all legal points. Its a scam and pure BS..a disgrace!
Now schools….terrible to say..at pre school level now and find the schooling at pre school here very low level.Its also unclean grounds in the sense of not good premises, dirty and the level of pre school teachers consists of burn’t out dropout ladies whom are brainless. There is no schooling..its just a “dump” for kids to be offloaded in the daytimes.
People..sad to say…but back in my old ways..no Kiwi mates again..Kiwi’s here don’t have much to say..are boring and either only want to talk about Rugby or else have nothing to talk about. My mates are again all foreigners basically, save 1 or 2!
Bludging in NZ is terrible..put out decent wine..yet they turn up with cheap s@it that you simply put to the side for your cooking wine..or worst turn up with cheap, crappy beer that is full of chemicals.
The worst is the “Kiwi women”.
My wife is highly educated,very polite , attractive and not a snob. Yet she so far has no Kiwi friends..the “women” in NZ unfortunately all seem “rude, crude, narrow minded and uneducated pigs ” to be polite…in other words not worth spending much time with unless your wife gets off on “trivial bs and stupid gossip..they seem even worst than the “kiwi” guys! The exception is foreign women whom tend to be our only female friends.
Water..water in NZ must be filtered..its crazy in NZ, full of chemicals. Kiwi gardeners are idiots ..they spray everything with tons of chemicals and same goes for inside of their houses.
Restaurants and coffee shops..generally over priced, no atmosphere and terrible food. A few exceptions are inner city areas..but once again limited options.
Gasoline for cars is double any other country, roads are poorly maintained, travel accommodation is poor and options are limited.
So many other complaints..the uneducated “yobbos” whom have stayed and are narrowed minded jerks, women whom lack basic manners and all seem to think dressing in a tracksuit or worst is going out..I can go on for hours…
I will say one thing..If you are young and just educated..get outta there..there are no opportunities for young smart kids and companies in NZ are limiting, low level and not progressive..including big name foreign finance or trading houses there too. Upside is negative
If returning or immigrating and not financially cashed up..do not come to NZ..the society is as it is..still much unchanged from my youth..simply because of the low level of savings in NZ, poor job prospects, low salaries, extreme costs, poor services ..and only one good good reason to be there is the outdoors..except outdoor sports such as fishing, sailing, hiking..whatever floats your boat..NZ is terrible!
I believe we will be here a couple of years until the “outdoors” runs out and then its likely in UK or USA or France for us after that!
E2NZ.org 
For me it is too late!! I am here 4 months but seriously 1 week or even 1 day is enough to be able to understand what this post is all about. I am a woman, and I feel like I will never fit to this society. I almost feel pressure I have to look ugly or speak trivial to be consider as a person. I love nature and this is why I thought NZ will be good for me. This is huge mistake even though the nature is beautiful this nation will kill any natural environment in five minutes if they would be in greater quantities. I am educated and I have experience all over the Europe and the UK and I can’t find a job (plus few languages). I was working as a kiwi picker so far. I am feeling trapped and I am considering going back home right now (even loosing money is nothing compare to loosing time here). Thank you for this website and for this post, I am feeling at least I am not alone. I can’t believe this propaganda. NZ is so s@it that I am sick even thinking about staying here another day. Everything is correct: lack of intelligent people, lack of perspective, lack of culture, lack of job opportunities, if someone has a kids or planning – lack of education and the housing OMG!!!! In my country (Poland) which has many different opinions and which is hard to live in – we have a better constructions on our allotments than people houses in NZ. I can’t believe that guys can’t even put a silicone in the toilet and for example fix the noisy doors, (they do not think – no logic). I believe I am fragile, sensitive, of average beauty and just average intelligence person, but I am feeling like an alien here. Don’t come here please if you like your life a little bit. You can go outdoor to countries closer to your own, not the end of the world. If you want to come in this part of the world go for example to Fiji for holiday etc. Don’t waste your life and time here!!!!
I think that there is a bit of a novelty factor in recent arrivals. All of that “get ‘er done” attitude might be of interest as it is so seldom seen from any others. There are some in NZ that possess an attitude that would be comparable, but it is rare.
After a while, the “shine” wears off, and you end up being unemployed presumably because you don’t “play by their rules”.
I was originally from Asia, if we were to compare Hong Kong and Japan to New Zealand, Hong Kong and Japan would look way better than New Zealand, Hong Kong has 0% GST and Japan has 8% GST compared to New Zealand’s 15% GST, public transport is very convenient in Hong Kong and Japan and it has a better nightlife than New Zealand
well, it seems it is not only me who left NZ after made redundant from a “reputable” multinational – NZ based – engineering consultancy, the shortage of work (not shortage of engineers!, thou they put it on the shortage list) made me “starving” for any work, I couldn’t find any engineering work tho they recruited me back in 2011….life was too expensive to survive on drops of benefit and my ex-wife had no job too. I came to NZ on a work visa then got my residency, and they made me redundant after 3 years, when i went to WINZ – desperate, for the same of my ex! – they told me you have to stay with a residency visa for 2 years….but they taxed me from first day I am in…..they took in three years about $62k…..I have to convince myself that this is the amount of money for which I used roads and “stupid” health system….and sh@t weather too.
I believe moving out was very wise decision……more wise than coming in!
Hi Sel,
If you are an honest, hard working and normal person, DO NOT come here.
I am serious. I did not listen to the advice given to my family prior to moving here. My ignorance or perhaps naivety cost us dearly.
No reason to deliberate further. All I want is to help save good human beings from being sucked into this great lie.
[Deleted, you were banned as per the zero tolerance policy. Admin]
[Deleted, you were banned as per the zero tolerance policy. Admin]
my best friend and i trying our luck to get a silver fern job search visa this November and upon reading your story and the comments here i got very disappointed. Is it true that there are no job opportunities for us in NZ? Im an accountant and my best friend is an engineer. Please help us decide.
Good luck to you.
You might want to read this report in full:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10804770
NZ visa error: Immigration makes u-turn
10:19 AM Thursday May 10, 2012
Most relevant section:
Since its launch in 2010, the scheme has had its quota filled within 30 minutes when it became available every year.
I suppose you should just think of it like an Apple product launch, where there is no queue. And pray there isn’t a failure of the undersea cable (or ISP hosting the NZ immigration website) carrying the internet traffic to NZ at that time.
[Deleted, ad hom attacks. Admin]
Oh I forgot to mention your comment on the women! I thought I was the only one with a mental problem, I have developed depression in dealing with kiwi women (the pakeha) I have never met, such fake, ingenuine, unfriendly, bully, sneaky, nasty, rude and unintellect women in my life. You will get instantly marginalised when your accent is not a kiwi one. Jealousy is the dominating emotion here amongst women. I would come home crying everyday from work. I still have depression since coming here and reading this whole blog just makes me feel I am not alone.
I very much appreciate your story and I really know exactly what youre saying – I have been here for 6 years and have not 1 friend. I left all my family and friends for a better life here. People here I find are unbelievably socially crippled, a business gathering or a social night with a group is a quiz, a quiz is the only intellect you can find cos people don’t like to talk about themselves and they don’t like to interact much unless its business related, and you have a kiwi accent. So sad. There is no class, it is a developing country and milks our mountains and beautiful lakes cos that’s all it has to offer.
Sadly, I second that. I myself tried to get back a couple of years ago, and I lasted 5 months. Sadly, Kiwiland are now known as “retarded” in Asia, far below average commodity products, sold at prime prices.
G’Day Mate,
True that…
Over the years, it surely has gone from bad to worse; whether it is business-sector or education-sector or the much dreaded legal system (to mention a few…)
Thanks for sharing.
Cheers…
ditto. I left early 80’s for similar reasons, came back late 80’s and met a lass. We shipped out in 98 after getting ripped off my a major ‘respected’ NZ corporation. It took us 9 years of slaveing to escape their clutches. Came back mid 2000’s for family reasons, and now desperate to get out again!
We were all set to go end of this year when I broke my back in an accident in mid 2014. After waiting 9 months on the public system I spent the money and went private. Now on the mend but it will be at least 18 months before we can get away and head back to France.
Ha ha, you say it is the same old shit, We have been here 12 years and it has all degraded before our very eyes. But maybe, we have only slowly opened our eyes.
Regardless, your impressions are almost identical to ours. Great outdoor opportunities. Pretty awful people.
Being from a Celtic nation, I like rugby, because we sing, and we welcome others to test us. We don’t hiss the opposition for being simply the opposition…. Jingoistic people of NZ. What else do you have? Listen carefully to the kiwis boo the visitors on to the pitch… No character, no rigor, and no depth. No collective culture. Just noise.
Nicely put, pretty much exactly how I feel about this miserable little outpost after 25 years. Unfortunately I’m stuck here until my wife finally stops drinking the Kool-Aid and lets us escape back to the UK for good. If my teenage boys stay here much longer they’ll be screwed. Thanks for articulating perfect my how I feel. It’s not just me then!