5 Things You Should Know About New Zealand

/ February 3, 2016

five things you need to know about new zealand

Dear Readers,

This is your space to tell the world 5 Things You Should Know About New Zealand, in the comments section below if you would be so kind.

Here’s what our readers have sent us so far, please feel free to add your own thoughts. This article is now receiving exposure on Twitter. Look out for the #5thingsNZ hashtag.

First up…

Sutibai Singh:

“The five things people should know about New Zealand are:

1) It is a nation which is anti education, anti progress and anti intellectual. It is like a crime to be highly qualified here. Highly qualified immigrants and even kiwis face discrimination in the workplace.This is the called the tall poppy syndrome which means that New Zealand will never ever improve as they are very against new ideas and concepts. In the job market, it is who you know rather than what you know as New Zealand is a village where people all know each other. There is an inner circle which immigrants can never break into. This results in people without any qualifications and experience being employed even at managerial level because they have the right connections. As a result of this workplace incompetence, inefficiency, and fraud is very common.Health and safety at the workplace is also very poor. Frog in a coconut shell mentality.

2) Very poor road quality and poorly light roads at night. Horrible drivers who do not even know the basics of driving. They are rude and impatient drivers who tailgate, change lane without indicating even on motorways where cars go at 100 km/h. Many drive on drugs and alcohol. This makes driving very dangerous in New Zealand for newcomers to NZ

3) Violent crime levels are high including child and domestic abuse. Theft and burglaries are very common. There is significant poverty among children and families. RIghts of criminals are more important than that of the victims. Punishment even for serious crimes is like a slap on the wrist resulting in criminals getting even bolder and more brazen when committing crimes in New Zealand.

4) Although kiwis in general seem polite on the surface, they are just being politically correct, that is all.
Rampant xenophobia , prejudice and violence against immigrants occur when kiwis are drunk or on drugs.They hate Asians here the most, although anybody who looks different or has a different accent is a target for hate.

5) Most Kiwis are not genuinely friendly., they are just superficially polite and often condescendingly “polite”. Many of them are cowardly people afraid of being straight up, frank and honest with you as they have no character. Most are fake , two faced, back stabbing people who talk to you nicely on the face and tell you what you want to hear. However, beware as behind your back they often say terrible things about you and have no qualms destroying your reputation if they can gain some advantage from it especially in the workplace.
You will never know if they are your friend or not because whatever comes out from the mouth are lies. Get everything in writing. There is no such concept as a gentleman’s word of honour here. Trust no one as many here lie, cheat and rip off people without shame.”

Jonny Ray:

“I have something important to say about this place. It’s not all Lemon and Paeroa and Pineapple Lumps :

1.) New Zealand is Australia’s Australia. – To understand New Zealand as country what you really need to do is study Australia. It’s not commonly spoken about anymore but alot of New Zealand early history is linked to Australia. It’s own “Founding Document” – ‘The Treaty Of Waitangi’ lists New Zealand as a colony of New South Wales and Maori as Aborigines. Though New Zealand later on became it’s own country you would think that alone would create a common love and a common bond between the two nations. It hasn’t. New Zealand hates Australia to the point where it has become large part of culture. Though there’s a number of reasons behind it, the simple truth behind it is this : Australia was originally founded by English Convicts where as New Zealand was originally founded by English Settlers – Farmers, Fishermen, Whalers, Timber Merchants, Bankers, Etc. Because of that New Zealand as a country has always seen themselves as being better than them, better than Australia and it’s this large grandiose self indignant attitude has developed over time to where they now think they’re better than everyone, even The British, their home country !

You still don’t believe me, then just look at who their national hero is. For a small country in South Pacific, New Zealand has gone on and done some incredible things such as spilt the atom, the jet boat, the first man to fly, but still they’re own National Hero is Sir Edmund Hillary, first man to climb Mt Everest. Why him ? Because not only did he get there first but he beat The British to do it which for them and to their national psyche finally proved everyone what they have know all along. Their better than everyone ! It is this arrogant attitude that they have about themselves that makes any genuine person living in New Zealand hate being here because having country where everybody thinks they’re better everyone and that nobody is on their level, you get country where everybody thinks they can just act and do what they like to you, a country where they treat everybody like shit.

2,) New Zealand is Expensive – Living in country that full of arrogant people like New Zealand does create some interesting problems The most noticeable one is how expensive place is compared to rest of world. Personally I would like tell you that it’s mostly comes down not having a large enough population to keep prices down but that’s not it. The real reason why this place is expensive is that with people being so arrogant they think they can just charge people what they like and because everybody does it, everybody else then just accepts it. An interesting side affect of this is having a county that’s full arrogant people content in ripping everybody off has made everybody here cheap when it comes to spending money. That’s why for instance as a country New Zealand has one of oldest population of cars where even in 2016 it’s still common sight to see cars from 1980s being driven around. I don’t need tell you how dangerous that is. Why people live in crap houses, poorly constructed and made from cheap materials. Why most household appliances available buy here are such low quality because when you’re getting ripped off, you only going to buy the cheapest on offer so it’s only ones they sell. Why people walk around in New Zealand in such a poor state with ripped clothes, torn jeans, stained t-shirts,, shoes with holes in them being another common sight. Like I said when you overpay for something you’re going want to wear it till it falls apart. It’s ironic really for country that’s full of arrogant people It’s amazing how okay they are in looking like crap.

3.) New Zealand is Dangerous – New Zealand being arrogant country with an undeserved sense about itself they don’t do much to improve things for people. In fact most of the time they’re just in denial about it because to admit that they have one of single highest crime rates in the developed world and the worse rate of child poverty, domestic abuse, alcohol and drug dependancy in world would be admitting to themselves that they’re not as great as they would like to think. So naturally in New Zealand they don’t admit it and they don’t do anything about it. Not really. Instead what they do is allow these problems to fester and grow larger to point where crime in large parts of country such as South Auckland, Waikato, Northland and Bay Of Island regions are rampant. Unfortunately these places are also where some of their tourist hotspots are resulting too often in unsuspected visitors to New Zealand getting raped/murdered as they don’t realise how third world really is here.

4.) New Zealand is Broken – Though New Zealand is technologically one of advance countries in world with it’s Wi-Fi coverage and widespread use of Eftpos, that only helps to hide how damaged infrastructure is here with place being only one bad storm away from the power going out or water not working. Again New Zealand is too arrogant to admit that there’s anything wrong or to demand that something should be done to fix these issues such as replacing city clay pipes with plastic or burry their power lines where they won’t be affected by weather. Interesting enough New Zealand has one of highest rates of Cancer and Waterborne diseases in world but no that has nothing to do with powerlines everywhere or broken sewage pipes that known to leak into water mains in some cities. Then there’s clean green image that New Zealand likes to portray. In it’s defence there are still some small parts of country where that’s true like Fiordland’s, mostly it’s a lie and a pretence they like to put on in front of people because it makes them feel superior and we all know how much they like to do that. The dairy industry which has now become New Zealand primary source of income has already destroy countryside with it’s poorly policed practices. Almost all the useable farmland in New Zealand has reached or is close to reaching dangerous toxic levels in their soil and the affects that could have on animals and milk they produced is anybody guess. Over ninety percent of New Zealand native animals are extinct and the small percentage left that are said to be protected almost all of them are struggling in one sense or other to survive because environment here. Again New Zealand is too arrogant to admit that there is problem or doing anything about it. It is a national disgrace.

5.) New Zealand is boring – New Zealand is a boring country not just because there is little to do here that isn’t sport oriented but because the country is so sport oriented and I am say this as a sports fan. The problem with New Zealand having such arrogant culture like it does it creates this sense of anti -intellectualism among people to where it’s almost like you can’t tell people anything because they like to think they know everything or if they don’t know it they don’t need to because if they don’t know it, it must be because it unimportant. So in New Zealand you just can’t seem to have discussion with anybody about anything without it turning into argument. I’ve never known a country where people just argues with everyone all time. I can’t explain it. It’s exhausting. That and because people in New Zealand like to think they know everything because of the arrogant culture they’ve got, they don’t seem to want to learn anything so it’s common here find people with degree who really don’t know anything ! People with Geography degree who can only name ten American States and can’t find Canada on map. People with History degree who have never heard of Oliver Cromwell or English Civil War or think that Queen Victoria was just made up person just like Jack The Ripper or Archduke Franz Ferinand. People with BA’s in Literature and Film who have never seen American Hustle or Mean Streets, The Good, Bad And The Ugly, Dirty Dozen or Battleship Potemkin let alone read or heard of Albert Camus, Gothe, Shakespeare, Pushkin or Poe.It is really staggeringly appalling how uneducated New Zealanders allow themselves to be but then like they always says ignorance is bliss so maybe that’s why I’m not happy here and after thirty two years of living here for my family I’m planing to leave. I hate it here and for me that’s all anybody needs to learn about New Zealand.”

Stephen:

1,New Zealand has developed from a farming community, outside Auckland don’t expect restaurant or bars (in fact anything) to be open past 8:30pm

2,Just because the national language is English, don’t expect this to be a little England or US, it’s not.

3,The remoteness of this Island has created a different sort of person, they have struggled in the past to get parts (for anything) and that together with a low population means this Island is one of the last on the list when it comes to good quality items at a decent price.

4,The location and the isolation, coupled with the history of the indigenous people has lead to the culture being quite reserved, people don’t confront you in the workplace or in service industries, but in the street there can be some who are very in your face, alternatively retribution for your perceived misdemeanors, can be a little devious (he coward punch or slashing your tyres).

5,The Kiwi can be very surreptitiously jealous, they are also this of themselves. They keep there wealth well hidden, then it makes it easier for them to do well out of every deal. Sell everyone else at the very highest price while bartering you all the way down, it’s a way of life. Keep you money in your pocket and your mouth shut.

Some people find the place just awesome, I on the other hand have taken 16 years to come to terms with the country, I love living here….Now. Even so if I wasn’t married to a Kiwi and have two children to her, I’d be off this Island in a flash.”

Tim:

“The nation is happy to trade on Maori Culture for the Tourism Dollars, just don’t expect many out side of Maoridom to know anything or have any interest in it. Indeed fully expect to hear racist commentary about them.

If you are working here for a local business, with local management do not expect to find professionalism Instead you’ll find petty small minded and frequently nepotism the order of the day. Typical management style is to stamp the feet and steam out the ears until they feel they have done their job for the day, and that good idea you had on Monday , which was dismissed and you got ridiculed for on Tuesday, will be the Manager brilliant idea by Friday.
Oh and zero hour contracts are common as muck here.

If buying a house, expect poor quality and hidden defects. If renting expect a health hazard . There is no Building warrant of fitness standards. Houses are built on all to often wood piles with all wooden construction in damp dank conditions. So rising damp and an ability to be able to identify mould and fungus spores and name the type will be a new skill you learn

If you enjoy cycling, be prepared to be treated like some road kill. Many motorists see anyone on a bike as a moving target. Prepare for abuse masked as “humor mate”, expect to have missiles lobbed at you by passing vehicles and expect the police to take no action even when you produce video footage showing cars rego and the drivers face clearly.

When you move here and you bring what seems like a small fortune with you, be prepared to have it turned into a very small fortune very rapidly. High cost of living , housing & food. Land of milk and honey but only at a high price.”

Clair Robin:

1) It’s very expensive to live here, although some things are cheaper. Most things are much more expensive than what you will be used to, especially rent.
2) Car insurance is much cheaper here, as is household insurance and business insurance.
3) The stars are crystal clear at night. I think the wind blows the pollution out to sea.
4) ACC is insurance here that covers anyone and you don’t have to pay into it. It covers everyone, but only for accidental injuries, such as: hurting your back by lifting heavy luggage, tripping and hurting yourself, cutting yourself, injuring yourself while swimming or hiking.
5) It’s quite difficult to be friends with the Kiwis, although I find the Pacific Islanders and Maori’s to be approachable. Also, every immigrant I’ve met here has been VERY welcoming.So if you want to be friends with the Kiwis (outside of Pacific Islanders and Maori’s or other immigrants), that may never happen.”

McleodKiwiTony:

1/ it’s cold most of the year and the sun is intensely hot for 4 months causing skin cancer.
2/ It is corrupt from the top down,the govt is dishonest and so are most industries
3/ Very boring ,very few free events or family friendly events which don’t cost.
4/ everything is overpriced by about 200% above what outsiders are used to paying.
5/ most N.Zers are completely passive aggressive,jealous,ignorant arrogant bastards .

Gra2229

“Unfortunately, I read the comments on this site and they disturb me. I have experienced corruption after the Christchurch earthquake. I lost a considerable portion of my life savings dealing with the inept EQC insurer. The EQC coffers have been pilfered by the NZ Government, leaving an IOU to be repaid. As a consequence the folks in Christchurch have never been paid their true entitlements, what I have observed on the ground in Christchurch is absolutely disgusting and criminal. If any migrants are considering moving to NZ, do not sell up in your country of origin and give serious thought before moving here.. I have never encountered so much arrogance, ignorance and bullying here in NZ There are very few opportunities for skilled migrants and if you are prepared to do menial work for little remuneration then this is the place for you.
The only redeeming feature living in NZ is the picturesque countryside. The education standards are very poor and I sent my daughter to an OS university to receive a quality education.
There is to much internal focus on rugby and it is the topic of conversation 24/7. The abuse of alcohol is of concern and it saddens to see many young people intoxicated.
I am married to a New Zealander and my wife agrees with me that her country has not matured. We are leaving NZ to take up residence in Australia and I will not return to NZ again.
Generally the standards right across the board are lacking. It is a very sloppy place to do business and the she will be right attitude with poor attention to detail is annoying.
THE BOTTOM LINE IS DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY TAKING UP PERMANENT RESIDENCE HERE. YOU WILL BE VERY DISAPPOINTED.
If I can prevent intending migrants making the same mistakes as I have and regretted will give some comfort to me.”

George

“There are 2 distinct New Zealands. A class system “doesn’t exist here” but it feels very much like one does. Please forgive the generalisations as there are also many good people in this country.

Version 1
A middle class society very much focused on materialism with the architect designed house, the boat, the bach, very competitive. They very much believe that NZ is the best place on earth, filed with special people like themselves. They have a very utopian view of the country. There are many people in this version who seem unaware that the other version exists.

Version 2
A lot of poverty, gang infested, violent, endemic drug use, high crime rate, broken family structures, young children roaming the streets at 2 in the morning, poorly educated. I could go on.

This is no different to anywhere else except people in other places are not in complete denial about the massive social problems in their country.

I also had the following points for would be immigrants.

1) Study the sporting opinion pieces on the Stuff website by British expat journalist Mark Reason. That man is hated in NZ and you will get an insight from the comments underneath his articles what people think of anyone who offers their honest opinion.

2) You will need to grow a thick skin pretty quickly. In particular if you are from England there are plenty of people who will be sharing with you their dislike of your Country. Particularly during the Rugby World Cup.

3) You will be leaving behind friends, family and favourite places etc. No one here is going to give a shit about what you have sacrificed to be here. If you come here with that in mind your chances of coping are greatly enhanced.”

Just a simple girl:

1) dangerous, on the road, on the street, inside your home, a lot of crimes, all sort of crimes
2) drinking culture plus drugs, but to the point that it is pathology
3) very low level of empathy, this is connected with kids being abused and look point 2 it is a circle
4) no intellectual activities only rough sport, boring
5) unhealthy style of life, unhealthy homes, plus the sun is unhealthy in NZ and the land is very much closed, if you love our mother nature you will be very much disappointed, as everywhere are farms and fences”

 

Jurijs:

1) New Zealand is yellow or brown yellow due to dry subtropical climate, saline environment, lack of water/rain and lack of trees. It is not green as portrayed in the famous Fronterra/Anchor etc advertisements around the world. This is because the majority of native bush and trees have been eradicated due to farming and commercial forestry. Mew Zealand is only green in the winter, when it rains more often. In the summer it is dried out and if you want to grow trees or create a garden you need irrigation.

2) Although the population density is among the lowest in the world, there’s no much room to play in New Zealand unless you are prepared for a long trip. Most populated urban areas are crowded and very busy, with a lot of car traffic day and night. Peace and quiet are very hard or very expensive to find in New Zealand, especially around the holiday season, most camping/outdoors spots are crowded. This is because the rest of the country is either privately owned farm land, crown land, or nature reserves.

3) Once arrived in New Zealand you will have to learn everything about the country and life in it yourself, quite often the hard way. New Zealanders have a strange culture of “lowering you” as a person and “prevailing over you”, “rubbishing you” if you are different, have an accent, don’t know as much as they do, don’t speak as fast as they do. They are always right and you are always wrong, this is what makes them happy. This may significantly impact your self-esteem and your chances to succeed in your job, life, career. Kiwis hate it when you do better than they do, because they are the best and number one in the world. Bitchy and counter-productive, non-constructive in other words.

4) Kiwis absolutely LOVE to bog immigrants. They, even private individuals, have access to most modern software and online tools to learn everything about you if you spend too much time online. On top of that they talk hugely among themselves about others, especially migrants who live nearby. If you post anything or say something online, it is most certain that they will tell you about it (make you aware they know what you have been up to online) at work and even in the street. They LOVE controlling you as an individual this way, it’s the easiest and most effective way to deprive you of your freedom and self esteem. These will be the people you have never met before and don’t know personally BUT they know who you are and everything about you based on what you do online. So be very careful or better all confuse them with your online activities. Kiwis LOVE to see themselves as superior to yourself. This is in fact the basis of their “non-racist” “all-inclusive” ideology. Stay away from these people for the sake of your mental health. They don’t care if you get crazy because of the abuse and bogging they give you. They just love it and get a huge buzz out of it. They don’t care about your online privacy at all. Neither they care how you feel. The worse the better for them it seems. If you show signs of unhappiness in your face and stop smiling – they will start criminalising you. They love it, so stay away from them for goodness sake!

5) Don’t even bear a slightest hope of getting a job that is equivalent to your overseas education and qualifications once you arrive in New Zealand. In the best case scenario you may get something that resembles a professional job after 15-20 years in the country and quite a few of these years will be on benefit when you will struggle to make ends meet. Otherwise kiwis expect you to work at construction sites, on farms and run dairy/grocery/vege shops, i.e. be the second class blue collar working type of person like most of them are. If you are an engineer, doctor, scientist, go to Australia, United States of America or Europe where you will be valued for your knowledge and the time you’ve spent at University.”

SafeFromNewZealand:

1 The appallingly shoddy quality of housing and the ridiculous price that one pays. When one looks at the houses from afar, they initially appear to resemble what one might find in a place like the United States or Australia. Unfortunately, one only realises how bad they are when one is inside them, particularly during a rainy winter. Fittings such as kitchens and bathrooms are extremely cheap. The carpet is crap and no one constructs anything with proper floors. Even worse is that the houses lack central heating or double-glazing, so it is often colder inside than outside. Many of the houses are not weathertight so one ends up with drafts or the inevitable mould that grows on walls etc. I have never seen such bad construction in my entire life. The terrible houses explain the prevalence of asthma.
2 The rife analphabetism and anti-intellectualism of the population. New Zealand sells itself as a destination offering world-class education standards. However, the competence level is low. No one can speak a foreign language aside from immigrants. Similarly, most people lack basic rudimentary skills in mathematics or they are incapable of writing correctly in English. Most people are also overtly hostile to intellectual endeavours. If you like to read, enjoy art, want to visit museums, like to dance etc, then the population will display overt hostility towards you. I would analogise New Zealand to landing in a left wing version of Alabama. The Kiwi media is a left of centre version of FOX News and the commentary and level of discourse are equally banal.
3 New Zealand is an extremely corrupt place run by dishonest cretins terrified of anyone, particularly migrants, who will expose their incompetence and dishonesty. Do not believe the lofty rankings from Transparency International. Kiwis have crooked DNA and the country’s court system is a joke. Convicted sex abusers of minors often receive name suppression in the courts and virtually all serious crimes receive no harsh sentences. The regulatory system exists merely to collect revenue. For example, a local council wants to collet thousands in fees to enable you to build a crappy house, but no regulatory body gives a damn when 19 people die in a mine due to poor safety practices. Similarly, the police show “zero tolerance” for someone driving 5 kilometres over the speed limit, but they will not bother investigating a serious crime.
4 New Zealand is relatively scenic, but it is nothing special. There are corners such as Fiordland that are nice, but virtually everything that is available in New Zealand from a scenery standpoint is available elsewhere for less money and less travel time.
5 New Zealand advertises skills shortages to entice relatively well-off migrants to come to New Zealand and squander their money. The skills shortages do not exist in some professions and when they do exist, the Kiwis are not interested in hiring foreigners. New Zealand wages for professional people are crap and those who rise to the top tend to do so through nepotism or being at the company for twenty years. Other countries will appreciate your skills better than New Zealand. Do yourself a favour and do not waste your time in New Zealand.

Rose

Thou must defend New Zealand at all costs and the population wear their narcissistic behaviour always at the forefront and always in pursuit of admiration for their own image and how they are perceived in the rest of the world. They love anyone that will stroke their ego and tell them how lovely and wonderful the people and things are in New Zealand and are fiercely in denial and go into attack mode to shame anyone that does not agree.

To succeed and flourish here you have to swallow a lot of those concrete pills and develop a Mach IV personality – be fiercely staunch and unemotional at the core. The people you encounter will be mostly passive aggressive and when you scratch the surface of the friendly Kiwi and you will quickly find an element of self-interest or plan to take something from you. You always need to be on guard for to protect yourself from the ulterior motive, its usually related to money or what you can do for them and how you might make or save them an extra buck.

In person and at the highest levels in the media and in politics Kiwis display excessive selfishness and have a total lack of empathy and awareness towards others who are less well off or unable to fend for themselves.

The country prides itself on No 8 wire penny pinching ways and this drives the Trademe mentality of everything having a price, even the most disgusting and filthy rubbish is salvaged and portrayed as a silk purse and nobody likes to give or throw anything away.

Kiwis like to over egg the good and exaggerate the attributes and achievements of themselves and fellow countrymen, stealing the ideas of others and portraying them as uniquely ‘Kiwiana’ and slamming anyone that snubs a Kiwi or the this country. Kiwis have an over elevated perception of their own abilities and are utterly obsessed with ‘punching above their weight’ and if you have an alternative opinion then you’re just a whinger and will be told to go home if you don’t like it.

In short, one must be prepared to follow procedure and always put down other people or other countries in order to make yourself or New Zealand look good.

Abby

Kiwis are sheeple- just like a massive herd of sheep. Each think they are so unique and awesome, but are identical, and need each other to be identical. If you act/think/talk differently, most do not cope very well with that. Herd mentality. Trends of any kind from political down to fashion and any thing that is happening overseas, particularly in Australia, USA or England, MUST BE adopted here. If you do not adopt the latest way of thinking, the latest gadget, social media or political/economic trend in the world, there is something WRONG with you.

Kiwis don’t have the concept of accountability. They live in self denial about how their actions affect others. Kids in NZ from a young age are shielded from the concept of accountability and responsibility, and grow up to be adults who have no idea how their shitty actions may affect others. This shows up in the way people drive, the lack of accountability for businesses or people in positions of authority, how common it is for people selling things on Trade Me to not be fully honest, and lots of other areas. They believe that they are valiant and noble for having a no blame culture, when things go wrong people will generally not complain or blame as they are trained to do from a young age. They think this reflects their inner personal strength. This results in a society that on every level has utter and complete denial about the dysfunctions abound. High level of dysfunction, low level of accountability. Oh, and if you wish to speak out against whatever particular dysfunction that you may be having a problem with, YOU are considered the messed up one.

Kiwis are emotionally extremely fragile people. They tend to think themselves so “tough” because they can survive a cold winter’s day in a t-shirt and shorts and not complain about it, but will instantly fall apart at the thought that they might be criticised, they might have done something wrong, or have to do something a particular way. Instant panic. Of course they don’t show it though. Everything in this society is designed to protect people from feeling bad. The assumption being that people are weak and can’t cope. The flip side is the strong need for people to show how “relaxed” they are about everything. They are constantly making a show of just how relaxed and non-plussed they are. If you somehow accidentally show that you are concerned about something, you will immediately get told to fix it. They have a very low tolerance of people who make efforts, who think about things (but to a Kiwi, thinking about things equals overthinking things and they can’t cope with you doing that), or who show that they actually care about the outcome of something. So if you live here and interact with Kiwis daily, you need to put on a show that you do not care about anything, nothing bothers you, that you can make do and get on with it.

The thinking here is simplistic and small-minded. People here do not seem to grasp a logical sense of reality. They don’t know how to think about something unless it’s been written about in the newspaper or a weekly mag like The Listener. People will then adopt the thinking of a writer or an authority, rather than develop their own ideas. Up is down and down is up and Kiwis wouldn’t know any better. If you do not deal with Kiwis on a meaningful level, this one will not bother you. But if you work, have relationships, marry into a Kiwi family, this one will make you feel as if you entered the Twilight Zone. Will make you question your sanity.

If you want to do well here in any capacity, you need a sense of humour. Being funny is considered one of the most important things, if not THE most important thing. It makes people feel relaxed and shows that you are relaxed and we all know that that is the most important thing in life.

UK builder:

The housing, the worst quality housing I have ever seen, timber framed housing in a very wet humid country don’t go together, constant saturation in the winter and hot humid heat in the summer cause rot, warping, damp and mould. More fool the people who pay $250,000 upwards for something that looks cosmetically great, but underneath is a complete mess and a constant drain on your money, insulation, forget it.

The English expats, 2 types of English people here – 1 – the type of people who will only talk down about the uk, constantly needing to remind you of how bad the uk is and gloat about how good NZ is, look on Facebook at the amount of people who need to tell everyone how good their lives are in NZ, constant insecurity and the need to reassure themselves they made the right choice, 2 – the English people who hate it, but are stuck, not many of these will speak up due to the attitude of others towards them, NZ is very far away from anything and if you put roots down there getting out is very, very hard.

The racism towards everything – Brit expats hate PI’s, PI’s hate everyone, kiwis hate PI’s and expats who don’t kiss ass, everyone hates the Asians.

The price – dear oh dear, money will become your life, the constant wondering of when you will be able to relax and enjoy your life, everything is low quality but extortionately priced. I priced a drill up at the time it was £105.00 in the uk the same drill was $635.00nzd, that is how bad it is, cars, housing, white goods and food are insanely expensive.

The lie & isolation – NZ is more bothered about how it is perceived to the world, they will encourage the view of natural beauty and privacy from the world when in reality it’s an isolated corner of the world nobody really cares for, people there (expats more so) will constantly look to put pictures up to get attention from others in the uk, go and look at your expats friends Facebook, it’s laughable. The place is nice but you’d think it was the only place on earth with a decent view.

Other stupid things:  The rugby obsession is ridiculous, the wages are pathetic, the boredom creeps up and never leaves.

Bitter sweet Symphony

After 3 years in New Zealand and getting at the end of my stay here I’m sharing my five thoughts of New Zealand.
1- Green and pure.
NZ advocates the so called ‘Green Ecological’ image. This is Propaganda to sustain tourism and an absolute façade. New Zealand has the same throw-away, resource depleting and polluting society as many other countries in the world or even worse. Even worse, nobody seems to give a damn. The amount of pollution caused by the dairy industry is so big that it causes headaches and ulcers to the Green politicians. The damage it does to the environment is shocking. Many Lakes and waterways in and around Canterbury like Lake Ellesmere and near Little River are so polluted that they are basically death water ponds. The cars, Trucks (these types of trucks would be banned in China because they are to polluting), Building Industry, Log fires, Ships are huge air polluters. I heard the PM John Key saying one day “NZ’s contribution of greenhouse gasses to the planet is only 0, 2%”… Well let’s say if, Yes IF’ that is true, 0, 2 % on global population of 4, 4 Mln people! That’s Hugh!
2- Social.
New Zealand has an ethnic diver’s population of Europeans, Indigenes People, Chinese, Indians and other backgrounds. Originally the western type society here originates from European settlers who deforest 70-80% of the native fauna for agriculture and forestry. The main sport is Rugby. I find the social live here very poor. I experienced no sense of culture, art, history. The social live here consist of drinking parties and sports. I also find the shallow politeness in most social encounters more annoying than pleasant. For example if your just walking in a hardware store with no particularly hurry in every Isle somebody comes up to you and asks personal questions. Its ridicules. I also learned that it’s typically for a Kiwi to say ‘Yeah’ (or Ijjeee) at least 2 times in 3 sentences. Even when they mean NO they have the habit to say ‘Ijjeee’.
3- Economical.
The country economy relies mainly on agriculture, the export of dairy products, fruit, and wine. Foreign currency in forms of real estate investors and tourism is also a major source of income. When you think NZ has a strong Economy with opportunities for hard working people please don’t. I will keep this subject as it is because it’s too much text. Please take my word for it. Don’t try it.
4- Education.
Young people look poorly dressed, tired, self-esteem less or behave like arrogant smurfs. I have never encountered such brutal rude children as here in NZ. It’s just appalling and I’m sorry for them. (The few good excluded of course).
5- Pros and cons.
If you think about visiting NZ for any other reason than pure necessity, DON’T! If for any other reason you don’t have any other choice, my advice is to come here for not more than 2 weeks. Set a certain amount of money aside, or even better take a certain amount of cash with you so you won’t get leeched of you hard earned money. Its extraordinary expensive country and very disappointing in all aspects. The can see the same sceneries here you can in Switzerland, Norway or Canada/US. Australia has much more to offer although the inhabitants will not admit it.

Admin thanks for posting. This website is a place where honest people can write what they think. It’s a great website!
(Shared by a Dutch immigrant who will sing ‘I saw the light’ when he’s out of here in a few weeks’ time).

Able

1. People are racist. I come from a country with its own issues, but I’m appalled at how acceptable racism is here. I’ve even heard well-respected professionals make comments about “The Asians” or the “maori thugs”.

2. The weather isn’t everything people praise it for. Sure, it’s nice a lot of the time, but the houses are super uncomfortable (too cold in winter, too hot in summer), and there are a lot of allergens. In thier infinite wisdom, kiwis have decided to basically allergy medication, so most times of the year are unpleasant for one reason or another.

3. “kiwi ingenuity” just means being stingy. Nothing gets replaced, properly fixed, or checked for safety. From the freezing cold homes to the 40-year old vehicles to the asbestos-filled public buildings, everything is just barely “good enough”.

4. The people here are desperately insecure. They feel everyone MUST love every single aspect of New Zealand. Anything less with gushing praise is met with a snide “Fuck off back home, then.”

5. People drink and drive all the time. People don’t see any issue with having a beer or glass of wine (or four) while out at dinner and immedietly driving home. Kiwis honestly believe that somehow it’s not “really” drinking and driving when THEY do it, and it only counts if they’re completely shitfaced. It’s really dangerous and you see people weaving all over the road on friday and saturday nights.”

Bob

“Everything you read on this site can be boiled down to the following. Memorise them to help you understand what you are getting into here in NZ. Everything re driving, housing, violence, racism, office politics, lack of management skills, etc etc etc can be traced from these.

NZers are:

Lazy

Cheap

Spineless

Xenophobic

Self-centred.

Good luck! You’re going to need it.”

Paul

1. Its 100% Pure Shit NZ. They should change that slogan.
2. Rugby is not only the national past time but the major religious denomination amongst New Zealanders.
3. Not all NZers are arseholes. About 70% of them are.
4. There is no such thing as kiwi ingenuity. Its called negligence.
5. They hate Australians with a passion while blissfully unaware that Australians don’t give a flying fuck about them.

Related posts

96 thoughts on “5 Things You Should Know About New Zealand”

  1. Lots of feed back on this one eh,lets not forget the gang problems in N.Z I’ll start with the most dangerous
    1 elite politicians
    2idiot police force who collect revenues on behalf of the elite poloticians
    3working class morons who believe they are part of the elite club which they’re not ,these are the tax payer gang.
    4 winz beneficiaries ,these gang members mainly have lots of illegitimate children in order to save themselves falling into prostitution or slave labour low wage jobs.
    5 The immigrant gang,these poor fools buy into the rhetoric that N.Zers are to lazy to work while they gladly take jobs which won’t pay their bills once the system gets a hold on them ,These gang members children will soon be part of gang members 3 and 4 they are just to proud and hopeful to figure it out.

  2. 1. Its 100% Pure Shit NZ. They should change that slogan.
    2. Rugby is not only the national past time but the major religious denomination amongst New Zealanders.
    3. Not all NZers are arseholes. About 70% of them are.
    4. There is no such thing as kiwi ingenuity. Its called negligence.
    5. They hate Australians with a passion while blissfully unaware that Australians don’t give a flying fuck about them.

    • Actually Aussies have decided to no longer humor the ‘small dog syndrome’ kiwis and are actively taking vitriolic steps against NZers to make up for their laissez faire attitude of the past.
      Aussie media are slowly eroding the aussie publics previous acceptance of kiwis as ‘okay’.

      • I think not taking them seriously is still the norm but Aussies know very little about NZ and pay them no attention. That hurts a kiwi more from what I’ve come across. I use to think kiwis were nice people before I came here. The migrant kiwis in Australia I met and worked with were always industrious types and very fair minded. Drank too much but that’s about it. Its little wonder they left this shithole. Talk to them and most don’t want to come back. I understand why now. I was profoundly misled by my impression of them when in Oz. The ones here are just bastards.

        • I know plenty of ratbags that went over too. It seems many are getting shipped back like a reject item returned to manufacturer.
          Aussies are NZ #1 tourist and growing. Soon they will all have had first hand knowledge of NZ…. from the point of view of a tourist on a ten day tour,, with only other aussies next to them 99% of the time. Time spent in all our beautiful spots in luxury hotels.

          • That’s all I’ll ever recommend to anyone who asks, Ras. 10 days max and 5 star all the way. Enjoy the scenery and bugger off back home. You can’t slum it in NZ. I mean you can but it will still cost you a mint.
            As for the ratbags being refunded it’s just a prelude for what’s to come with the impending citizenship revoke laws introduced by the Turnbull govt. Their eye is firmly on being seen to be tough on crime and immigration. A distraction mostly and an attempt to garner some of the xenophobe vote they lost to One Nation. Muslims are copping it worse in the media.

  3. Everything you read on this site can be boiled down to the following. Memorise them to help you understand what you are getting into here in NZ. Everything re driving, housing, violence, racism, office politics, lack of management skills, etc etc etc can be traced from these.

    NZers are:

    Lazy

    Cheap

    Spineless

    Xenophobic

    Self-centred.

    Good luck! You’re going to need it.

  4. All this excellent, truthful commentary yet still they come! I have a complete 6 foot solid fence around my property – that’s how I cope in this God forsaken place. Unfortunately, it takes a hell of a lot of money to get out, once you are here – because it’s all sucked off you by the price of things, moaning friends, rip off services – so if you are not prepared to be pillaged, and are coming with plenty of cash, leave it at home or the Kiwis will take it all!

  5. Well plenty of criminals can’t wait for bash a tourist season to begin,they have already gotten off to the now standard kiwi holiday season start by breaking into family homes and stealing Xmas gifts from under the trees ,hohoho and before anyone tears up and gets all cry cry,don’t worry this happens every year in N.Z and is kind of a tradition,thieves break into your homes and steal kids Xmas gifts no worries you pricks they’re only things and you can produce some more happy kids later if your current ones get all fucked up over this , the good news is 5 days later the cops come to investigate and might bring your kids a stuffed toy(this will be a newspaper headline) ,next day the Auckland Herald prints a click bait story and helps the victim set up a give a little page after they print they print a horrible depressing story blah de blah

  6. I think you are all idiots who have great trouble spelling words properly. Maybe you think that all kiwis are rude to everyone but maybe they’re just rude to yoh because you’re a fucking bitch, who likes to come in and talk about things you know nothing about. I have lived in New Zealand all my life and neither me nor anyone I’ve talked to about this has ever come across any of these problems. Maybe you should open your fucking eyes and stop being such pessimistic assholes and see that this country is not that goddamn bad. If you still can’t see then kindly remove your head from your ass. Sincerely someone who would like you to stop sharing your unnessary opinion on things you don’t have the mental capacity to understand.

    • Hi Diana,

      There are pro and cons living in NZ like anywhere else. Try having a chat or leaving a message on another forum about the cons and see how that goes. For example, I am raising children here so I bloody care that the country is up there with the highest youth suicide rates in the world. That horrible statistic doesn’t fit in with “the happiest country in the world” narrative that is pumped out in the media. It sounds like the Fairfax-NZME merger is going to be thrown out by the Commerce Commission. If that had gone through 90% of the print media output would have been owned by one company making NZ and China the countries with the most concentrated and controlled media platforms in the OECD. As it is now 90% of the Market is controlled by 2 companies which is still worrying. What this means is very little breathing room for diverse opinion if it doesn’t fit in with the commercial narrative. This website offers a place to discuss issues that you can’t really talk about anywhere else.

    • Ohhh Diana….If it’s not so bad, why vehemently defend it then with such bitterness and hostility? You represent the typical Kiwi response to any criticism or evaluation of your ‘perfect 100% clean and green” bullshit country. Talk about irony..LOL.

      I realise Diana has been banned and can’t reply, but thought I’d retort anyway.

      Folks, this is the typical Kiwi response to any negative or opposing views about New Zealand, Kiwis will get their backs up and verbally and even physically abuse you for it. They will tell you to eff off and all sorts.

    • I was at Cocaine Cola Xmas In The Park @ Auckland Domain last night. I rode my bicycle in, and stood inside the gate watching from the hill.

      People entered from my shoulder as I watched the show, and I did a mild appraisal of the punters at the same time.

      Gangster wannabees by the score, untrustworthy youth shifty gazed and looking for trouble made up a very large component of the masses. I had the pleasure of two drug fucked young women standing near me rolling joints of weed. Their addled minds and hoarse tobacco voiced conversations were a bit funny for a while, and very sad too when I realized they were no older than 21 or so.

      The prevalence of bad quality people in NZ is very high, too high to be considered a paradise, or a great place to raise kids.

      Latter that night I went to the Grey Lynn RSA to watch the Parker Ruiz fight. Drunkenness and vitriol abounded, and many punters near me who were upper middle class, showed racism toward Parker{Samoan]. The country is clearly divided racially. I have never had anything in common with most kiwis, and I never will. I am mixed blood and either have the best of both worlds, or the worst of both worlds.

      All I do now in NZ, is hide from my fellow countrymen and women, and I previously had many wealthier upper class friends too. Once bitten twice shy, except its more like the death of a thousand cuts here in paradise NZ.

      Welcome to hell bitches.

    • I was just browsing and saw this open minded comment ,very inspiring and strangely this person has lived here her entire life and never encountered a single problem ,must be everybody who comments here is incorrect,another issue mentioned on this site is victim blaming ,N.Z favourite activity after watching Rugby.

  7. But wait there is hope on the horizon,John Key has stepped down today ,hopefully John English won’t accept the role of N.Z dictator and Judith Collins will step up ,this person is possibly the most hated public official in N.Z and for good reason ,the good thing about Collins is that absolutely everybody in N.Z hates her and recognises her for the complete shister she is ,this will free our country of the oppressive National party

    • ‘But wait there is hope’
      We live in hope,, Hope springs eternal,, but there is a part of me which says NZ will not change….. and the best we can do here is have a good bleat to make ourselves feel better till we leave the house again

  8. Yep, the homes are mostly shit, and kiwis can be insecure and racist at the same time.
    Its like one of those isolated towns in a horror movie, it really IS that archetype.

    No one wants to live in many of the small towns of NZ. You can by whole pubs on an acre for $200k, large buildings with accommodation and many fixtures that would cost probably $2mill to replace, but no one wants to live or buy in these depressing shitholes.
    The cities are popular for immigrants because….. they have other immigrants! I have been here as a baby since the sixties, and none of the kiwis I grew up with have immigrant friends.

    I have had to let them go because of their hostile attitudes toward foreigners of which my parents were, and so am I really. They’re racist jokes and constant subtle put downs I handled for some time, then as I aged I could not handle they’re attitudes any longer.

    Often I would blame myself, trying to fit in, but when you realize they only associate with other kiwis, it becomes apparent what the problem really is. Racism.

  9. 1. People are racist. I come from a country with its own issues, but I’m appalled at how acceptable racism is here. I’ve even heard well-respected professionals make comments about “The Asians” or the “maori thugs”.

    2. The weather isn’t everything people praise it for. Sure, it’s nice a lot of the time, but the houses are super uncomfortable (too cold in winter, too hot in summer), and there are a lot of allergens. In thier infinite wisdom, kiwis have decided to basically allergy medication, so most times of the year are unpleasant for one reason or another.

    3. “kiwi ingenuity” just means being stingy. Nothing gets replaced, properly fixed, or checked for safety. From the freezing cold homes to the 40-year old vehicles to the asbestos-filled public buildings, everything is just barely “good enough”.

    4. The people here are desperately insecure. They feel everyone MUST love every single aspect of New Zealand. Anything less with gushing praise is met with a snide “Fuck off back home, then.”

    5. People drink and drive all the time. People don’t see any issue with having a beer or glass of wine (or four) while out at dinner and immedietly driving home. Kiwis honestly believe that somehow it’s not “really” drinking and driving when THEY do it, and it only counts if they’re completely shitfaced. It’s really dangerous and you see people weaving all over the road on friday and saturday nights.

  10. I just need to say how much relief this website has provided me.
    I have lived here since the sixties when my family migrated here, but it has ground me down and my parents too, they died unhappy and miserable here in NZ. I blamed them for things, I blamed NZers for things, but I think the time to understand that even the elite here in NZ suffer. Its the place that does this, the land.

    Anyhows, a huge burden has been lifted from my heart since reading the sharings on E2NZ, so thank you E2NZ. I really needed this.

    Its been like a cathartic counselling session or something that really moved some stuff around for me. Special shout out to Tony, for tuning me up on some things, from an insiders perspective.

    I’ve probably got 5 things brewing I could write, and will mull it over and spill my guts soon…. as they say, in UnZed.

    Cheers

  12. 1 Worst of all in new Zealand are the disgusting prices you pay for houses, furniture and food. The quality from everything you buy here is just awfull. From mobile phones to laptops prepare yourself to buy an new one every year even if it’s an apple.

    2 Social isolation is an depressing fact you’re doomed to fall into when residing in New Zealand. In western counries we hear fairytales of extremely friendly kiwi’s helping eachother out all the time and how hospitable they are. Some kind of adventureland where you can play in the great big outdoors everyday. But sadly non of it is true..at least not for you hopeful immigrant. Kiwi’s will leave you out. you will find yourself hiking without the kiwi’s !

    3 job opportunities are to find on many job sites and even popular ones like trade me always seem to have enough vacancies open for all immigrants. But the reality is there are thousands of immigrants trying to look for an job and not to forget the backpackers. Employers don’t even look at the applications anymore because there are just too many they can’t handle it. There is to much competition and the job will first go to the kiwi and for sure the nicest ones. this is regulated by law. So you will most likely end up on an dairy farm.

    4 unsafe country is what you’ll never hear in an western country about New Zealand. There are only about 4 million people and many more millions of sheep in NZ so how can there be any dangerous criminals right ? native Maori’s must be living in peaceful tribes ? NOT ! just replace the tribes with GANGS !
    Because of the poverty most people live in there is simply just more criminal activity than in most OECD countries.

    5 BORING as can be ! Once you’ve driven around the islands in your van , had a good surf , snowboard and mountain bike session you’ll be like time for an nice concert or an exciting evening in the city. But you’ll soon come to realize that most of new Zealand will sleep at around 9.00pm. So when you think your evening is just beginning and you are ready for the party yeah you’ll look around and you could hear an needle fall.
    Sure outdoor sports are great and yeah there are opportunities for that with an amazing views. But don’t look for the excitement here. Not much arts or music festivals so you’ll end up behind the tv which is also not to exciting.. PS if you’re lucky you may want to catch up with Chileans at the farms , (they give smashing parties all the time !!) And for the very few parties that do go on be on guard for shootings , rapes , burgles , high drug use and very mentally unstable people !

  13. Anything and everything you buy from a Kiwi will be a rip off ,broken ,damaged and overpriced ,anything which is worth a damn goes to their friends and families,I’m referring to items across the board from home appliances to expensive businesses .

  14. Can’t emphasis the above point enough this has been the downfall of many new immigrants who believe the friendly Kiwi B.S ,They see their contact with you a different way than most would expect,it’s in no way a sharing of friendship and fair social exchange ,they are there to get as much information on you as possible and share very little about themselves,they are seeking out your wealth and vulnerability and will attempt to leverage this at a later date for their own personal gain unless they feel you have nothing which will benefit them in which case you may never see them again

  15. The kiwi woman’s favourite trick in a social situation is to withdraw themselves from the conversation and sit on the fringes of the group sneakily listening for any information they can glean on a person and regurgitate to their gossip circle later,don’t let this happen ,I find the best approach with kiwis is to say nothing of significance in their presence and never let my guard down,they will resort to direct inappropriate questions and prying about your affairs at which point it’s time to deflect and leave.

  16. Wilderpeople movie ,actually the people would have been found in 24 hours ,police helicopters would have sprayed them with bullets and the forest would have been portrayed for what it actually is in the stupid movie ,regenerating bush which was clear felled 100 years ago and would take about 500 years to look like bush again ,stupid scenes in this movie even show the stumps of the majestic trees which used to be here.

  17. Hehe lots of good feedback about wonderful N.Z here ,really exciting to see the movie Wilderpeople is top of the charts here in N.Z ,this movie is ridiculous and reinforces the Kool aid mentality of Kiwis I don’t have a clue how it ended because I walked out what a bunch of bullshit .

  18. HI Admin,

    Here is my contribution to the topic. That the world may know!! 😉

    After 3 years in New Zealand and getting at the end of my stay here I’m sharing my five thoughts of New Zealand.
    1- Green and pure.
    NZ advocates the so called ‘Green Ecological’ image. This is Propaganda to sustain tourism and an absolute façade. New Zealand has the same throw-away, resource depleting and polluting society as many other countries in the world or even worse. Even worse, nobody seems to give a damn. The amount of pollution caused by the dairy industry is so big that it causes headaches and ulcers to the Green politicians. The damage it does to the environment is shocking. Many Lakes and waterways in and around Canterbury like Lake Ellesmere and near Little River are so polluted that they are basically death water ponds. The cars, Trucks (these types of trucks would be banned in China because they are to polluting), Building Industry, Log fires, Ships are huge air polluters. I heard the PM John Key saying one day “NZ’s contribution of greenhouse gasses to the planet is only 0, 2%”… Well let’s say if, Yes IF’ that is true, 0, 2 % on global population of 4, 4 Mln people! That’s Hugh!
    2- Social.
    New Zealand has an ethnic diver’s population of Europeans, Indigenes People, Chinese, Indians and other backgrounds. Originally the western type society here originates from European settlers who deforest 70-80% of the native fauna for agriculture and forestry. The main sport is Rugby. I find the social live here very poor. I experienced no sense of culture, art, history. The social live here consist of drinking parties and sports. I also find the shallow politeness in most social encounters more annoying than pleasant. For example if your just walking in a hardware store with no particularly hurry in every Isle somebody comes up to you and asks personal questions. Its ridicules. I also learned that it’s typically for a Kiwi to say ‘Yeah’ (or Ijjeee) at least 2 times in 3 sentences. Even when they mean NO they have the habit to say ‘Ijjeee’.
    3- Economical.
    The country economy relies mainly on agriculture, the export of dairy products, fruit, and wine. Foreign currency in forms of real estate investors and tourism is also a major source of income. When you think NZ has a strong Economy with opportunities for hard working people please don’t. I will keep this subject as it is because it’s too much text. Please take my word for it. Don’t try it.
    4- Education.
    Young people look poorly dressed, tired, self-esteem less or behave like arrogant smurfs. I have never encountered such brutal rude children as here in NZ. It’s just appalling and I’m sorry for them. (The few good excluded of course).
    5- Pros and cons.
    If you think about visiting NZ for any other reason than pure necessity, DON’T! If for any other reason you don’t have any other choice, my advice is to come here for not more than 2 weeks. Set a certain amount of money aside, or even better take a certain amount of cash with you so you won’t get leeched of you hard earned money. Its extraordinary expensive country and very disappointing in all aspects. The can see the same sceneries here you can in Switzerland, Norway or Canada/US. Australia has much more to offer although the inhabitants will not admit it.

    Admin thanks for posting. This website is a place where honest people can write what they think. It’s a great website!
    (Shared by a Dutch immigrant who will sing ‘I saw the light’ when he’s out of here in a few weeks’ time).

    • Bitter Sweet Symphony,

      Very interesting and informative comments. I wonder when the myth of ‘clean, green NZ’ will be finally busted. The other myth is of NZ as one of the world’s model nations, a kind of Sweden of the remote SW Pacific. After reading many of the immigrants’ comments on this and other sites, that myth also seems well past its use-by-date.

      ‘Australia has much more to offer’, agreed, particularly in the variety of landscapes and wildlife. New Zealanders don’t seem to realise how poor their country is in wildlife, not only compared to Australia but other similar sized land masses, many European countries would probably have a greater diversity of flora and fauna. NZ certainly is a beautiful country, however there’s no equivalent to the Great Barrier Reef, the Grand Canyon, the Amazon or the Andes.

      • Your welcome RussellW. It’s just an opinion but strangely enough shared with so many more expats. We xp NZ as a ultra expensive country. From what we heard it wasn’t like that some decades ago but it really is now. Staying here is an uphill battle mate. Thank admin who makes efforts to share my and many aother peoples thoughts. Good luck!!

  19. Refering to the article above: My idea of NZ is as long as the schools won’t teach the NZ youth that it’s a nessecity to leave ASAP, I won’t take anything seriously here.

  20. I think NZ is on the verge of becoming on the same level of disfunctionallism as Colombia or the phillipines. At least there is interesting nature to experience in stead of meat producing ugly pastures sprayed by uneducated morons. I live in Chch and in a few months or hopefully weeks we leave and are going to share our experiences here.
    Chch and in fact whole Nz is beyond belief. Poverty full on. People in suits chasing the Money while homeless people roam the streets me to them. Dressed women driving like kamikaze pilots. Lol it’s so pathetic that its amusing in the same time. You have to be mad to stay here lol. Anybody who is genuine looking for a good life and reason please don’t feel offended. I just can’t help myself sharing this because it’s beyond belief. I have never met such unfriendly stupid people in my life as here in Chch. I honestly think that inbred is a major cause of this. Im not judging or blaming people neither am I labeling or bullying anybody. It’s just my honoust opinion.

    • It’s not just Christchurch… it is also in Dunedin and the Clutha district where I try and live. I have only been back in the country a few weeks and I am constantly staggered by what I see. I get confused and repulsed by these people, and I am deliberately shy of them. I basically don’t want any encounter, except on a basic level in order to get provisions and so forth.
      Uncouth, undereducated, coarse, stupid … these words come to mind. Then there are the dangerous ones, the drugged and drunken psychopaths, and they are very well integrated into the social fabric.

      Sane, educated, well mannered, and polite…. well they are the ones who may not integrate well and be eventually targeted by the homogenised inbreds.

      • Mayadevi. Dunedin has a bad reputation about the youth and their behaviour. The propaganda of the ‘excellent study life’ here should be banned. It’s a big LIE. This website gets this in the open en that’s how it suppose to be! Good luck!

    • Yes Christchurch seems like a mad place, and sometimes I truly think it is.

      It has only gotten worse and an earthquake did not do it any good either.
      Still it wrecked the building where I was working at which in truth was a nut house…then again it was a drug supply company so makes sense.

      The shift in work building made no difference. Had a Scottish assistant manager who was not taken seriously in any way.
      He left, made threats against the company. Turned out he didn’t according to what someone else said.
      Well he did, as I found out about it an an employment agency.

      But I could see why. Dreadful management, ego obsessed people, too many super visors too many people not wanting to do their job properly or blaming someone else.
      I left and have been unemployed since and the work and income services have given me nothing but harassment for providing practical efforts and suggestions for finding a better job, while all they do is lie make up stories and talk to me like they are above and beyond my intelligence.

      So….that is New Zealand for you, a capitalistic country. Where it seems everyone is encouraged to be brainless, willingly stupid but I feel a lot of the world is like that too as well. So I try not to think about it too much. What can you do anyway?

  21. What’s funny is that I am 6’2″ tall I work out a few days a week I’m huge and not fat anyway,for work outside my own business I drive heavy equipement,for my personal car I drive a tiny little 1000 cc car more than adequate for N.Z speed limits,it’s unbelievable how many people try to tailgate me or push me around in my little car . Today a woman got so far up my tailpipe it was ridiculous ,turned out she had the same destination as me so I walked over and advised her against fucking with other drivers while she had three under 5 year old children in her car ,I’m sure she pissed her seat and I’m sure she’s dumb enough to do it again.

    • And yet she was doing that to you while she had children in the car. If defies belief it really does. But you know damn well Tony that the woman will be justifying to herself that she actually never did anything wrong, so was a waste of time even conversing with her. Thats how backward and fucked in the head people are here.

  22. Apparently repeated head injuries cause Rugby players to get dementia ,I had this conversation 3 years ago with my fathers ridiculous wife who knows every rugby and league player by name and their entire history blah blah ,the stupid cow told me I was anti N.Z ,I tried to tell her that our National sport was killing and maiming people and of course was poo,pooed oh lookey now ,she also denied that dairy farms were causing harm to our waterways koolaid drinking Kiwi moron.

  24. It’s like Lego land ,the little figures all wearing high vis jackets and sticking road cones every where but really they’re just souless blobs of plastic .

  25. The housing, the worst quality housing I have ever seen, timber framed housing in a very wet humid country don’t go together, constant saturation in the winter and hot humid heat in the summer cause rot, warping, damp and mould. More fool the people who pay $250,000 upwards for something that looks cosmetically great, but underneath is a complete mess and a constant drain on your money, insulation, forget it
    The English expats, 2 types of English people here – 1 – the type of people who will only talk down about the uk, constantly needing to remind you of how bad the uk is and gloat about how good NZ is, look on Facebook at the amount of people who need to tell everyone how good their lives are in NZ, constant insecurity and the need to reassure themselves they made the right choice, 2 – the English people who hate it, but are stuck, not many of these will speak up due to the attitude of others towards them, NZ is very far away from anything and if you put roots down there getting out is very, very hard.
    The racism towards everything – Brit expats hate PI’s, PI’s hate everyone, kiwis hate PI’s and expats who don’t kiss ass, everyone hates the Asians.
    The price – dear oh dear, money will become your life, the constant wondering of when you will be able to relax and enjoy your life, everything is low quality but extortionately priced. I priced a drill up at the time it was £105.00 in the uk the same drill was $635.00nzd, that is how bad it is, cars, housing, white goods and food are insanely expensive.
    The lie & isolation – NZ is more bothered about how it is perceived to the world, they will encourage the view of natural beauty and privacy from the world when in reality it’s an isolated corner of the world nobody really cares for, people there (expats more so) will constantly look to put pictures up to get attention from others in the uk, go and look at your expats friends Facebook, it’s laughable. The place is nice but you’d think it was the only place on earth with a decent view.

    Other stupid things

    The rugby obsession is ridiculous
    The wages are pathetic
    The boredom creeps up and never leaves

    • I like your point one. In particular the English expats who refer to English people as Poms. “I hope we beat the poms at rugby” and those sort of comments. I was probably a point 2 type but there has been a lot of anti English sentiment in the last 12 months with the flag debate and it hit extreme levels during the Rugby World Cup. I have recently become intolerant to the bullshit that pervades in particular things like “best place in the world to bring up kids” when NZ tops the world on youth suicide, children abuse, teenage accidental death and probably other issues. I have politely raised concerns on media sites like Stuff and the abuse flying in my direction has been extreme.

      • The English – universally hated until you really get to know them. The Kiwis – universally loved until you really get to know them… 😉

    • I too can not understand the rugby obsession. I have been shamed to not like rugby or cricket.
      Also can not understand why New Zealanders get proud that their children walk bare foot around.
      Someone told me my foot are small because they make children wear shoes in europe and in NZ has bigger foot because children walk around in the grass barefoot. Interesting information haha

      I have been thinking i would be cycling a lot because of open space but after hearing the crashes and its dangerous i couldn’t really dare.

    • Hey man. Timber frame and humidity do go together. If you soak it with toxic arsenic! Welcome to paradise.

  26. Kiwis are sheeple- just like a massive herd of sheep. Each think they are so unique and awesome, but are identical, and need each other to be identical. If you act/think/talk differently, most do not cope very well with that. Herd mentality. Trends of any kind from political down to fashion and any thing that is happening overseas, particularly in Australia, USA or England, MUST BE adopted here. If you do not adopt the latest way of thinking, the latest gadget, social media or political/economic trend in the world, there is something WRONG with you.
    Kiwis don’t have the concept of accountability. They live in self denial about how their actions affect others. Kids in NZ from a young age are shielded from the concept of accountability and responsibility, and grow up to be adults who have no idea how their shitty actions may affect others. This shows up in the way people drive, the lack of accountability for businesses or people in positions of authority, how common it is for people selling things on Trade Me to not be fully honest, and lots of other areas. They believe that they are valiant and noble for having a no blame culture, when things go wrong people will generally not complain or blame as they are trained to do from a young age. They think this reflects their inner personal strength. This results in a society that on every level has utter and complete denial about the dysfunctions abound. High level of dysfunction, low level of accountability. Oh, and if you wish to speak out against whatever particular dysfunction that you may be having a problem with, YOU are considered the messed up one.
    Kiwis are emotionally extremely fragile people. They tend to think themselves so “tough” because they can survive a cold winter’s day in a t-shirt and shorts and not complain about it, but will instantly fall apart at the thought that they might be criticised, they might have done something wrong, or have to do something a particular way. Instant panic. Of course they don’t show it though. Everything in this society is designed to protect people from feeling bad. The assumption being that people are weak and can’t cope. The flip side is the strong need for people to show how “relaxed” they are about everything. They are constantly making a show of just how relaxed and non-plussed they are. If you somehow accidentally show that you are concerned about something, you will immediately get told to fix it. They have a very low tolerance of people who make efforts, who think about things (but to a Kiwi, thinking about things equals overthinking things and they can’t cope with you doing that), or who show that they actually care about the outcome of something. So if you live here and interact with Kiwis daily, you need to put on a show that you do not care about anything, nothing bothers you, that you can make do and get on with it.
    The thinking here is simplistic and small-minded. People here do not seem to grasp a logical sense of reality. They don’t know how to think about something unless it’s been written about in the newspaper or a weekly mag like The Listener. People will then adopt the thinking of a writer or an authority, rather than develop their own ideas. Up is down and down is up and Kiwis wouldn’t know any better. If you do not deal with Kiwis on a meaningful level, this one will not bother you. But if you work, have relationships, marry into a Kiwi family, this one will make you feel as if you entered the Twilight Zone. Will make you question your sanity.
    If you want to do well here in any capacity, you need a sense of humour. Being funny is considered one of the most important things, if not THE most important thing. It makes people feel relaxed and shows that you are relaxed and we all know that that is the most important thing in life.

  27. On Johnny Ray’s point about the hero-worship of Edmund Hilary: a Kiwi will NEVER tell you that it was all facilitated by the British. His expedition was Britain’s 9th under John Hunt. There were 400+ people on that expedition and Hunt instructed Hilary and Tenzing to go for the summit (would a Kiwi ever give a Brit that chance?). British planning. British money. British equipment and organisation. British expertise…

    Rutherford split the atom at Manchester university and then Cambridge (where he is also credited with leading the team that discovered the neutron). British money. British equipment and organisation. Etcetera. ..

    I suppose one of my strongest feelings about NZ is their tendency to thievery…it’s subtle but they claim credit all the time where it may only be due in part. What they always forget is to give credit to others where it’s due.

    Take the recent Lord of the Rings/Hobbit thing. How many Kiwis will ever give credit to the very English JRR Tolkien who wrote the series?

    They are a bunch of envious plunderers, constantly stealing the glory for what others have paid for and enabled.

    Migrants come away stripped of their assets and self confidence while they claim credit for being the most awesome little place on earth.

    I had quite a few Kiwi friends in London before I moved to NZ and I now realise I wasn’t getting their genuine faces, so to speak. When they get back home they slip right back into being what is, without doubt, the most insecure, aggressive, inferior people I have ever known..

    I’ve got 5 words that sum it up better than any others can: THANK GOD I’M OUT!

    P.S. thanks E2NZ. You’re a bit of a lifesaver.

    • Well said. I was speaking to a long time friend this morning and he shared how the loser called “Mike Hosking” was making fun of Ringing Bells smart phone (apparently it’s just about $5 but serves people in need and also regular customers, had 60000 hits per minute on their website during launch etc), this loser says “it’s probably not even a smart phone”….really??? and one useless kiwi invention will be propagated in the news million times as if it they discovered a light bulb. For some reason I can’t even get to terms to smile let alone laugh at the pun.

  28. If New Zealand had a personality it would be at the dark triadic end of the spectrum and once you see it for what it is, you will see the same thread of undercurrents repeated over and over again in the above observations.

    Thou must defend New Zealand at all costs and the population wear their narcissistic behaviour always at the forefront and always in pursuit of admiration for their own image and how they are perceived in the rest of the world. They love anyone that will stroke their ego and tell them how lovely and wonderful the people and things are in New Zealand and are fiercely in denial and go into attack mode to shame anyone that does not agree.
    To succeed and flourish here you have to swallow a lot of those concrete pills and develop a Mach IV personality – be fiercely staunch and unemotional at the core. The people you encounter will be mostly passive aggressive and when you scratch the surface of the friendly Kiwi and you will quickly find an element of self-interest or plan to take something from you. You always need to be on guard for to protect yourself from the ulterior motive, its usually related to money or what you can do for them and how you might make or save them an extra buck.
    In person and at the highest levels in the media and in politics Kiwis display excessive selfishness and have a total lack of empathy and awareness towards others who are less well off or unable to fend for themselves.
    The country prides itself on No 8 wire penny pinching ways and this drives the Trademe mentality of everything having a price, even the most disgusting and filthy rubbish is salvaged and portrayed as a silk purse and nobody likes to give or throw anything away.
    Kiwis like to over egg the good and exaggerate the attributes and achievements of themselves and fellow countrymen, stealing the ideas of others and portraying them as uniquely ‘Kiwiana’ and slamming anyone that snubs a Kiwi or the this country. Kiwis have an over elevated perception of their own abilities and are utterly obsessed with ‘punching above their weight’ and if you have an alternative opinion then you’re just a whinger and will be told to go home if you don’t like it.

    In short, one must be prepared to follow procedure and always put down other people or other countries in order to make yourself or New Zealand look good.

    • I like the “concrete pills” observation. I used to say things like “That was a bit scary” when encountering certain situations and get lots of “What are yer” comments. I soon learnt to keep my mouth shut rather appear like some weakling.

  30. New Zealand did not split the atom ,nor were they the first to fly aircraft,these are stories told to children,look it up yourselves however I can assure you it’s not true,N.Z did invent the jet boat engine for boats ,Hamilton Jet ,well done ,there’s really nothing else this country has invented except mixing cows shit with water and spraying it everywhere and deforesting an entire nation for short term profit.

  31. 1 The appallingly shoddy quality of housing and the ridiculous price that one pays. When one looks at the houses from afar, they initially appear to resemble what one might find in a place like the United States or Australia. Unfortunately, one only realises how bad they are when one is inside them, particularly during a rainy winter. Fittings such as kitchens and bathrooms are extremely cheap. The carpet is crap and no one constructs anything with proper floors. Even worse is that the houses lack central heating or double-glazing, so it is often colder inside than outside. Many of the houses are not weathertight so one ends up with drafts or the inevitable mould that grows on walls etc. I have never seen such bad construction in my entire life. The terrible houses explain the prevalence of asthma.
    2 The rife analphabetism and anti-intellectualism of the population. New Zealand sells itself as a destination offering world-class education standards. However, the competence level is low. No one can speak a foreign language aside from immigrants. Similarly, most people lack basic rudimentary skills in mathematics or they are incapable of writing correctly in English. Most people are also overtly hostile to intellectual endeavours. If you like to read, enjoy art, want to visit museums, like to dance etc, then the population will display overt hostility towards you. I would analogise New Zealand to landing in a left wing version of Alabama. The Kiwi media is a left of centre version of FOX News and the commentary and level of discourse are equally banal.
    3 New Zealand is an extremely corrupt place run by dishonest cretins terrified of anyone, particularly migrants, who will expose their incompetence and dishonesty. Do not believe the lofty rankings from Transparency International. Kiwis have crooked DNA and the country’s court system is a joke. Convicted sex abusers of minors often receive name suppression in the courts and virtually all serious crimes receive no harsh sentences. The regulatory system exists merely to collect revenue. For example, a local council wants to collet thousands in fees to enable you to build a crappy house, but no regulatory body gives a damn when 19 people die in a mine due to poor safety practices. Similarly, the police show “zero tolerance” for someone driving 5 kilometres over the speed limit, but they will not bother investigating a serious crime.
    4 New Zealand is relatively scenic, but it is nothing special. There are corners such as Fiordland that are nice, but virtually everything that is available in New Zealand from a scenery standpoint is available elsewhere for less money and less travel time.
    5 New Zealand advertises skills shortages to entice relatively well-off migrants to come to New Zealand and squander their money. The skills shortages do not exist in some professions and when they do exist, the Kiwis are not interested in hiring foreigners. New Zealand wages for professional people are crap and those who rise to the top tend to do so through nepotism or being at the company for twenty years. Other countries will appreciate your skills better than New Zealand. Do yourself a favour and do not waste your time in New Zealand.

  32. YEAH NAH, Definition
    A favourite saying as a response to anything,often used as Segway to any comment by Prime Minister John Key ,along with a dismissive comment used to finalise any conversation
    “At the end of the day”.
    “Yeah Nah”, means : Ill break it down,”yeah”- you lips move but I don’t care what you’re saying.
    “Nah”- whatever you said I disagree and am about to tell you my warped irrelevant perspective .

  33. 1) New Zealand is yellow or brown yellow due to dry subtropical climate, saline environment, lack of water/rain and lack of trees. It is not green as portrayed in the famous Fronterra/Anchor etc advertisements around the world. This is because the majority of native bush and trees have been eradicated due to farming and commercial forestry. Mew Zealand is only green in the winter, when it rains more often. In the summer it is dried out and if you want to grow trees or create a garden you need irrigation.

    2) Although the population density is among the lowest in the world, there’s no much room to play in New Zealand unless you are prepared for a long trip. Most populated urban areas are crowded and very busy, with a lot of car traffic day and night. Peace and quiet are very hard or very expensive to find in New Zealand, especially around the holiday season, most camping/outdoors spots are crowded. This is because the rest of the country is either privately owned farm land, crown land, or nature reserves.

    3) Once arrived in New Zealand you will have to learn everything about the country and life in it yourself, quite often the hard way. New Zealanders have a strange culture of “lowering you” as a person and “prevailing over you”, “rubbishing you” if you are different, have an accent, don’t know as much as they do, don’t speak as fast as they do. They are always right and you are always wrong, this is what makes them happy. This may significantly impact your self-esteem and your chances to succeed in your job, life, career. Kiwis hate it when you do better than they do, because they are the best and number one in the world. Bitchy and counter-productive, non-constructive in other words.

    4) Kiwis absolutely LOVE to bog immigrants. They, even private individuals, have access to most modern software and online tools to learn everything about you if you spend too much time online. On top of that they talk hugely among themselves about others, especially migrants who live nearby. If you post anything or say something online, it is most certain that they will tell you about it (make you aware they know what you have been up to online) at work and even in the street. They LOVE controlling you as an individual this way, it’s the easiest and most effective way to deprive you of your freedom and self esteem. These will be the people you have never met before and don’t know personally BUT they know who you are and everything about you based on what you do online. So be very careful or better all confuse them with your online activities. Kiwis LOVE to see themselves as superior to yourself. This is in fact the basis of their “non-racist” “all-inclusive” ideology. Stay away from these people for the sake of your mental health. They don’t care if you get crazy because of the abuse and bogging they give you. They just love it and get a huge buzz out of it. They don’t care about your online privacy at all. Neither they care how you feel. The worse the better for them it seems. If you show signs of unhappiness in your face and stop smiling – they will start criminalising you. They love it, so stay away from them for goodness sake!

    5) Don’t even bear a slightest hope of getting a job that is equivalent to your overseas education and qualifications once you arrive in New Zealand. In the best case scenario you may get something that resembles a professional job after 15-20 years in the country and quite a few of these years will be on benefit when you will struggle to make ends meet. Otherwise kiwis expect you to work at construction sites, on farms and run dairy/grocery/vege shops, i.e. be the second class blue collar working type of person like most of them are. If you are an engineer, doctor, scientist, go to Australia, United States of America or Europe where you will be valued for your knowledge and the time you’ve spent at University.

  34. 1) dangerous, on the road, on the street, inside your home, a lot of crimes, all sort of crimes
    2) drinking culture plus drugs, but to the point that it is pathology
    3) very low level of empathy, this is connected with kids being abused and look point 2 it is a circle
    4) no intellectual activities only rough sport, boring
    5) unhealthy style of life, unhealthy homes, plus the sun is unhealthy in NZ and the land is very much closed, if you love our mother nature you will be very much disappointed, as everywhere are farms and fences

  35. As an Australian I’d agree with with Johnny Ray’s comments about New Zealanders’ attitudes towards their trans Tasman neighbour. I must have heard and read a version of the following remark a hundred times-“Australia’s early white settlers were jail birds and other riff raff and NZ was colonised by a much better class of people”. That snobbery prevented NZ from joining the Australian Federation when it received an invitation, and I suspect at some level in their psyches, many Kiwis realise it was a disastrous mistake. However, it’s too late now, and that’s why they adopt such a virulent, sour grapes, anti-Australian attitude.

    Of course, during the first three quarters of the 20th century, NZ was regarded as one of the world’s model nations, the ‘Sweden of the South Pacific’, apparently many New Zealanders haven’t noticed that the situation has changed.

    • Well the worm has turned ,we have bred a sucessesion of foul criminals here in N.Z and sorry for you but many of them are headed for your shores ,30 % of the asshole N.Z criminals Australia sent back to us have already re offended here in N.Z ,that took about 3 months after their extradition ,not all of us are Australia hating crooks and I hope Australia won’t close its doors to us.

      • mcleodkiwitony,

        Some historical background. Actually most of the criminals sent to Australia in the late 18th century committed rather minor offences by today’s standards, there were more than 200 capital offences. By sending people to a godforsaken wilderness at the bottom of the world rather than hanging them, the British were being humane by the standards of the time.
        Most of the Kiwi criminals we’ve deported have far worse records than the convicts transported to Australia.

        “not all of us are Australia hating crooks ” Good point, I really wasn’t suggesting that all Kiwis share that opinion.

        Kiwis seem to want to ‘have it both ways’ ie to be an independent country and at the same time expect NZ to be a treated as a de facto Australian state, we really should normalise relations and treat each other’s citizens like any other foreigners. The hare-brained trans Tasman migration agreement is poisoning relations between the two countries, particularly from a NZ perspective. Btw I’m not suggesting ‘closing the door’ to Kiwis, any New Zealander who satisfies our immigration requirements is very welcome here.

        Despite the Anzac mythology, until the end of the 20th century, our two countries effectively ignored each other.

        • Yes I’m sure that many English were guilty of minor crimes but sent to Australia to help establish the Empire ,you are obviously aware that the media here is mostly responsible for creating a rift with our neighbours across the Tasman,N.Z has always been fortunate to have the opportunity to work in Australia when things turn bad here ,most stay and assimilate well in your country ,thanks for your open minded response,wish we had mor people like you in our country.

    • Greetings from Sweden of the Scandinavia. I can promise it is not any longer what it was in “the first three quarters of the 20th century” either. Open borders, feminism, enforced oligarc casino economy, facist agenda media, have surely not missed making an impact

      I am reading this website to the last word to see if NZ would be an option since I do like some peace and quiet, and stability in the society. But since I am an Engineer, I understand from my reading here there has to be some other destination. Maybe I should reconsider USA, or investigate Australia as an option.

      I am already living abroad and I am building my own company so I am a pretty driven person.

      • I can only suggest Australia as an option. Not sure about others. Don’t risk NZ. It’s a hard number here and trying to break into the market – Well good luck with that. As you don’t know anyone you will soon see your reserve funds dwindle. You may get the odd job initially but once the established organisations realise your in you will get stonewalled, slandered and priced out. They will fuck you over without a though (on principal). Unless you are into fighting for every last scrap of work ,have no morals and deep pockets stay clear of NZ. Your company will be lucky to last 2 years. I am talking from experience and I come from here.

      • Hector,

        As an Australian I suggest that you do your research very carefully before you migrate to this country or anywhere. I’m definitely not making any recommendations.

        Australia is a larger nation than NZ with far greater economic and demographic resources. That said, there are some dark clouds on the horizon. The country’s short term economic future is probably to go into a recession after a long mining boom. The current neoliberal government will certainly make the situation worse by the use of ‘austerity’ policies. Not the best time to start a new life in a foreign country.

        I was amazed to read about Sweden’s economic and social problems.

  36. Unfortunately, I read the comments on this site and they disturb me. I have experienced corruption after the Christchurch earthquake. I lost a considerable portion of my life savings dealing with the inept EQC insurer. The EQC coffers have been pilfered by the NZ Government, leaving an IOU to be repaid. As a consequence the folks in Christchurch have never been paid their true entitlements, what I have observed on the ground in Christchurch is absolutely disgusting
    and criminal. If any migrants are considering moving to NZ, do not sell up in your country of origin and give serious thought before moving here.. I have never encountered so much arrogance, ignorance and bullying here in NZ There are very few opportunities for skilled migrants and if you are prepared to do menial work for little remuneration then this is the place for you.
    The only redeeming feature living in NZ is the picturesque countryside. The education standards are very poor and I sent my daughter to an OS university to receive a quality education.
    There is to much internal focus on rugby and it is the topic of conversation 24/7. The abuse of alcohol is of concern and it saddens to see many young people intoxicated.
    I am married to a New Zealander and my wife agrees with me that her country has not matured. We are leaving NZ to take up residence in Australia and I will not return to NZ again.
    Generally the standards right across the board are lacking. It is a very sloppy place to do business
    and the she will be right attitude with poor attention to detail is annoying.
    THE BOTTOM LINE IS DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY TAKING UP PERMANENT RESIDENCE HERE. YOU WILL BE VERY DISAPPOINTED.
    If I can prevent intending migrants making the same mistakes as I have and regretted will give some comfort to me.

  37. There are 2 distinct New Zealands. A class system “doesn’t exist here” but it feels very much like one does. Please forgive the generalisations as there are also many good people in this country.

    Version 1
    A middle class society very much focused on materialism with the architect designed house, the boat, the bach, very competitive. They very much believe that NZ is the best place on earth, filed with special people like themselves. They have a very utopian view of the country. There are many people in this version who seem unaware that the other version exists.

    Version 2
    A lot of poverty, gang infested, violent, endemic drug use, high crime rate, broken family structures, young children roaming the streets at 2 in the morning, poorly educated. I could go on.

    This is no different to anywhere else except people in other places are not in complete denial about the massive social problems in their country.

    • There are 2 distinct New Zealands. A class system “doesn’t exist here” but it feels very much like one does. Please forgive the generalisations as there are also many good people in this country.

      Version 1
      A middle class society very much focused on materialism with the architect designed house, the boat, the bach, very competitive. They very much believe that NZ is the best place on earth, filed with special people like themselves. They have a very utopian view of the country. There are many people in this version who seem unaware that the other version exists.

      Version 2
      A lot of poverty, gang infested, violent, endemic drug use, high crime rate, broken family structures, young children roaming the streets at 2 in the morning, poorly educated. I could go on.

      This is no different to anywhere else except people in other places are not in complete denial about the massive social problems in their country.

      I also had the following points for would be immigrants.

      1) Study the sporting opinion pieces on the Stuff website by British expat journalist Mark Reason. That man is hated in NZ and you will get an insight from the comments underneath his articles what people think of anyone who offers their honest opinion.
      2) You will need to grow a thick skin pretty quickly. In particular if you are from England there are plenty of people who will be sharing with you their dislike of your Country. Particularly during the Rugby World Cup.
      3) You will be leaving behind friends, family and favourite places etc. No one here is going to give a shit about what you have sacrificed to be here. If you come here with that in mind your chances of coping are greatly enhanced.

  38. 1/ it’s cold most of the year and the sun is intensely hot for 4 months causing skin cancer.
    2/ It is corrupt from the top down,the govt is dishonest and so are most industries
    3/ Very boring ,very few free events or family friendly events which don’t cost.
    4/ everything is overpriced by about 200% above what outsiders are used to paying.
    5/ most N.Zers are completely passive aggressive,jealous,ignorant arrogant bastards .

  39. Awesome. As a long time reader of this site, here are my top five things I feel people should know about New Zealand. My apologies to everyone in advance if anything I post on here has been said before. It’s not my intention to copy anybody’s opinions on here and make them out as my own, my only wish is to share them as I feel as overseas American who has lived here my whole life, I have something important to say about this place. It’s not all Lemon and Paeroa and Pineapple Lumps :

    1.) New Zealand is Australia’s Australia. – To understand New Zealand as country what you really need to do is study Australia. It’s not commonly spoken about anymore but alot of New Zealand early history is linked to Australia. It’s own “Founding Document” – ‘The Treaty Of Waitangi’ lists New Zealand as a colony of New South Wales and Maori as Aborigines. Though New Zealand later on became it’s own country you would think that alone would create a common love and a common bond between the two nations. It hasn’t. New Zealand hates Australia to the point where it has become large part of culture. Though there’s a number of reasons behind it, the simple truth behind it is this : Australia was originally founded by English Convicts where as New Zealand was originally founded by English Settlers – Farmers, Fishermen, Whalers, Timber Merchants, Bankers, Etc. Because of that New Zealand as a country has always seen themselves as being better than them, better than Australia and it’s this large grandiose self indignant attitude has developed over time to where they now think they’re better than everyone, even The British, their home country !

    You still don’t believe me, then just look at who their national hero is. For a small country in South Pacific, New Zealand has gone on and done some incredible things such as spilt the atom, the jet boat, the first man to fly, but still they’re own National Hero is Sir Edmund Hillary, first man to climb Mt Everest. Why him ? Because not only did he get there first but he beat The British to do it which for them and to their national psyche finally proved everyone what they have know all along. Their better than everyone ! It is this arrogant attitude that they have about themselves that makes any genuine person living in New Zealand hate being here because having country where everybody thinks they’re better everyone and that nobody is on their level, you get country where everybody thinks they can just act and do what they like to you, a country where they treat everybody like shit.

    2,) New Zealand is Expensive – Living in country that full of arrogant people like New Zealand does create some interesting problems The most noticeable one is how expensive place is compared to rest of world. Personally I would like tell you that it’s mostly comes down not having a large enough population to keep prices down but that’s not it. The real reason why this place is expensive is that with people being so arrogant they think they can just charge people what they like and because everybody does it, everybody else then just accepts it. An interesting side affect of this is having a county that’s full arrogant people content in ripping everybody off has made everybody here cheap when it comes to spending money. That’s why for instance as a country New Zealand has one of oldest population of cars where even in 2016 it’s still common sight to see cars from 1980s being driven around. I don’t need tell you how dangerous that is. Why people live in crap houses, poorly constructed and made from cheap materials. Why most household appliances available buy here are such low quality because when you’re getting ripped off, you only going to buy the cheapest on offer so it’s only ones they sell. Why people walk around in New Zealand in such a poor state with ripped clothes, torn jeans, stained t-shirts,, shoes with holes in them being another common sight. Like I said when you overpay for something you’re going want to wear it till it falls apart. It’s ironic really for country that’s full of arrogant people It’s amazing how okay they are in looking like crap.

    3.) New Zealand is Dangerous – New Zealand being arrogant country with an undeserved sense about itself they don’t do much to improve things for people. In fact most of the time they’re just in denial about it because to admit that they have one of single highest crime rates in the developed world and the worse rate of child poverty, domestic abuse, alcohol and drug dependancy in world would be admitting to themselves that they’re not as great as they would like to think. So naturally in New Zealand they don’t admit it and they don’t do anything about it. Not really. Instead what they do is allow these problems to fester and grow larger to point where crime in large parts of country such as South Auckland, Waikato, Northland and Bay Of Island regions are rampant. Unfortunately these places are also where some of their tourist hotspots are resulting too often in unsuspected visitors to New Zealand getting raped/murdered as they don’t realise how third world really is here.

    4.) New Zealand is Broken – Though New Zealand is technologically one of advance countries in world with it’s Wi-Fi coverage and widespread use of Eftpos, that only helps to hide how damaged infrastructure is here with place being only one bad storm away from the power going out or water not working. Again New Zealand is too arrogant to admit that there’s anything wrong or to demand that something should be done to fix these issues such as replacing city clay pipes with plastic or burry their power lines where they won’t be affected by weather. Interesting enough New Zealand has one of highest rates of Cancer and Waterborne diseases in world but no that has nothing to do with powerlines everywhere or broken sewage pipes that known to leak into water mains in some cities. Then there’s clean green image that New Zealand likes to portray. In it’s defence there are still some small parts of country where that’s true like Fiordland’s, mostly it’s a lie and a pretence they like to put on in front of people because it makes them feel superior and we all know how much they like to do that. The dairy industry which has now become New Zealand primary source of income has already destroy countryside with it’s poorly policed practices. Almost all the useable farmland in New Zealand has reached or is close to reaching dangerous toxic levels in their soil and the affects that could have on animals and milk they produced is anybody guess. Over ninety percent of New Zealand native animals are extinct and the small percentage left that are said to be protected almost all of them are struggling in one sense or other to survive because environment here. Again New Zealand is too arrogant to admit that there is problem or doing anything about it. It is a national disgrace.

    5.) New Zealand is boring – New Zealand is a boring country not just because there is little to do here that isn’t sport oriented but because the country is so sport oriented and I am say this as a sports fan. The problem with New Zealand having such arrogant culture like it does it creates this sense of anti -intellectualism among people to where it’s almost like you can’t tell people anything because they like to think they know everything or if they don’t know it they don’t need to because if they don’t know it, it must be because it unimportant. So in New Zealand you just can’t seem to have discussion with anybody about anything without it turning into argument. I’ve never known a country where people just argues with everyone all time. I can’t explain it. It’s exhausting. That and because people in New Zealand like to think they know everything because of the arrogant culture they’ve got, they don’t seem to want to learn anything so it’s common here find people with degree who really don’t know anything ! People with Geography degree who can only name ten American States and can’t find Canada on map. People with History degree who have never heard of Oliver Cromwell or English Civil War or think that Queen Victoria was just made up person just like Jack The Ripper or Archduke Franz Ferinand. People with BA’s in Literature and Film who have never seen American Hustle or Mean Streets, The Good, Bad And The Ugly, Dirty Dozen or Battleship Potemkin let alone read or heard of Albert Camus, Gothe, Shakespeare, Pushkin or Poe.It is really staggeringly appalling how uneducated New Zealanders allow themselves to be but then like they always says ignorance is bliss so maybe that’s why I’m not happy here and after thirty two years of living here for my family I’m planing to leave. I hate it here and for me that’s all anybody needs to learn about New Zealand.

    • Perfectly said, to be honest some people in the UK don’t know who was Orwell and Camus and others as well, so it’s not only NZ (but I guess in the UK only people from the lower level of the society are so ignorant, where in NZ it’s just common for almost everyone), but I agree no chance for intellectual conversation in NZ (no reading books at all). I am happy for you, you can escape of this place. It’s terrible. Very interesting points….specially no 1 for me, as I never thought about why they hate so much Ozz.

    • When I first arrived back here 3 years ago I noticed that the most debilitating part of this society was their arrogance ,(read Tony’s Tales ) anyway ,I’m often wondering if I have gone off on a tangent and lost my mind here and then someone on this site reinforces my beliefs and gives me strength to carry on lol,I am staying here as my ageing parents are in poor health and need my support.Im also getting to old to enjoy the prospect of re establishing myself in another country,( I wrote that for the morons who will tell me why don’t I fuck off if I don’t like it here).
      Anyway ,thank you for your well written insightful article,it’s very accurate and I’m sure you could have written more!

      • im 53 Tony and relish the chance when in 2 years we are heading off to France for a new life.
        Age is but a number its the person who defines it be they old at 20 or young at 60.

        • That was nice of you ! I would like to buy another yacht and sail away to the South Pacific ,done it before,I’m 50 just turned ,I do have some feelings of guilt associated with not conforming ,Thanks for the reply.

        • Also wanted to mention Tim ,I lived in L.A for a number of years ,I was fortunate to share a house with a French national and his son,we had an incredible social group ,gatherings involved guests bringing well thought out complimentary food dishes and conversation was always open and intellectual ,the French people I met were truely wonderful human beings,such a stark contrast with the passive aggressive nasty attitudes I have encountered since returning to this land of anger and despair ,I wish you the best in your relocation to France.

  40. The five things people should know about New Zealand are:

    1) It is a nation which is anti education, anti progress and anti intellectual. It is like a crime to be highly qualified here. Highly qualified immigrants and even kiwis face discrimination in the workplace.This is the called the tall poppy syndrome which means that New Zealand will never ever improve as they are very against new ideas and concepts. In the job market, it is who you know rather than what you know as New Zealand is a village where people all know each other. There is an inner circle which immigrants can never break into. This results in people without any qualifications and experience being employed even at managerial level because they have the right connections. As a result of this workplace incompetence, inefficiency, and fraud is very common.Health and safety at the workplace is also very poor. Frog in a coconut shell mentality.

    2) Very poor road quality and poorly light roads at night. Horrible drivers who do not even know the basics of driving. They are rude and impatient drivers who tailgate, change lane without indicating even on motorways where cars go at 100 km/h. Many drive on drugs and alcohol. This makes driving very dangerous in New Zealand for newcomers to NZ

    3) Violent crime levels are high including child and domestic abuse. Theft and burglaries are very common. There is significant poverty among children and families. RIghts of criminals are more important than that of the victims. Punishment even for serious crimes is like a slap on the wrist resulting in criminals getting even bolder and more brazen when committing crimes in New Zealand.

    4) Although kiwis in general seem polite on the surface, they are just being politically correct, that is all.
    Rampant xenophobia , prejudice and violence against immigrants occur when kiwis are drunk or on drugs.They hate Asians here the most, although anybody who looks different or has a different accent is a target for hate.

    5) Most Kiwis are not genuinely friendly., they are just superficially polite and often condescendingly “polite”. Many of them are cowardly people afraid of being straight up, frank and honest with you as they have no character. Most are fake , two faced, back stabbing people who talk to you nicely on the face and tell you what you want to hear. However, beware as behind your back they often say terrible things about you and have no qualms destroying your reputation if they can gain some advantage from it especially in the workplace.
    You will never know if they are your friend or not because whatever comes out from the mouth are lies. Get everything in writing. There is no such concept as a gentleman’s word of honour here. Trust no one as many here lie, cheat and rip off people without shame.

  41. 1,New Zealand has developed from a farming community, outside Auckland don’t expect restaurant or bars (in fact anything) to be open past 8:30pm

    2,Just because the national language is English, don’t expect this to be a little England or US, it’s not.

    3,The remoteness of this Island has created a different sort of person, they have struggled in the past to get parts (for anything) and that together with a low population means this Island is one of the last on the list when it comes to good quality items at a decent price.

    4,The location and the isolation, coupled with the history of the indigenous people has lead to the culture being quite reserved, people don’t confront you in the workplace or in service industries, but in the street there can be some who are very in your face, alternatively retribution for your perceived misdemeanors, can be a little devious (he coward punch or slashing your tyres).

    5,The Kiwi can be very surreptitiously jealous, they are also this of themselves. They keep there wealth well hidden, then it makes it easier for them to do well out of every deal. Sell everyone else at the very highest price while bartering you all the way down, it’s a way of life. Keep you money in your pocket and your mouth shut.

    Some people find the place just awesome, I on the other hand have taken 16 years to come to terms with the country, I love living here….Now. Even so if I wasn’t married to a Kiwi and have two children to her, I’d be off this Island in a flash.

    • That sounds like me. Married to a Kiwi wife and raising our children here but would also be away in a flash. I am happy enough with my life here but it does often feel like I am just killing time and hanging out for an overseas trip every few years.

  42. The nation is happy to trade on Maori Culture for the Tourism Dollars, just don’t expect many out side of Maoridom to know anything or have any interest in it. Indeed fully expect to hear racist commentary about them.

    If you are working here for a local business, with local management do not expect to find professionalism Instead you’ll find petty small minded and frequently nepotism the order of the day. Typical management style is to stamp the feet and steam out the ears until they feel they have done their job for the day, and that good idea you had on Monday , which was dismissed and you got ridiculed for on Tuesday, will be the Manager brilliant idea by Friday.
    Oh and zero hour contracts are common as muck here.

    If buying a house, expect poor quality and hidden defects. If renting expect a health hazard . There is no Building warrant of fitness standards. Houses are built on all to often wood piles with all wooden construction in damp dank conditions. So rising damp and an ability to be able to identify mould and fungus spores and name the type will be a new skill you learn

    If you enjoy cycling, be prepared to be treated like some road kill. Many motorists see anyone on a bike as a moving target. Prepare for abuse masked as “humor mate”, expect to have missiles lobbed at you by passing vehicles and expect the police to take no action even when you produce video footage showing cars rego and the drivers face clearly.

    When you move here and you bring what seems like a small fortune with you, be prepared to have it turned into a very small fortune very rapidly. High cost of living , housing & food. Land of milk and honey but only at a high price.

  43. 1) It’s very expensive to live here, although some things are cheaper. Most things are much more expensive than what you will be used to, especially rent.
    2) Car insurance is much cheaper here, as is household insurance and business insurance.
    3) The stars are crystal clear at night. I think the wind blows the pollution out to sea.
    4) ACC is insurance here that covers anyone and you don’t have to pay into it. It covers everyone, but only for accidental injuries, such as: hurting your back by lifting heavy luggage, tripping and hurting yourself, cutting yourself, injuring yourself while swimming or hiking.
    5) It’s quite difficult to be friends with the Kiwis, although I find the Pacific Islanders and Maori’s to be approachable. Also, every immigrant I’ve met here has been VERY welcoming.So if you want to be friends with the Kiwis (outside of Pacific Islanders and Maori’s or other immigrants), that may never happen.

    • I have read that New Zealand is one of the few countries in the world that doesn’t have compulsory car insurance. I think I saw a figure once that 25% of cars on the road are uninsured. I once read that Compulsory Insurance is a barrier to young people driving elsewhere in the world and hence a reason why NZ has one of the highest rates of teenage car crashes in the world.

      • George: …New Zealand is one of the few countries in the world that doesn’t have compulsory car insurance…

        It does – kind of. There is compulsory injury insurance built into the annual registration fee (ACC levy), but everything else isn’t covered. Getting caught driving an unregistered vehicle is a big deal as it’s defrauding the government, but there’s little interest from the police in dealing with uninsured drivers who cause property damage and very little chance of recovering anything even if you do manage to identify them (your insurance company will try but 90% of the time there’s simply no money to get out of them)

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