Living in and visiting New Zealand can be two very different things.
Here’s an interesting thread on Reddit New Zealand for anyone who is thinking about making the move to New Zealand (hat tip to HL for the heads up).
Its encouraging to see so many responses to the above question that aren’t tainted with liberal splashes of kool-aid. The most supportive, pro-NZ comment comes from someone with ‘skin in the game‘ – married to a Kiwi whom she had to persuade to move back to NZ against his better judgment, and who now has children in the country that she probably won’t be permitted to remove when the honeymoon period expires.
Anyway, here are some of the more realistic replies to the above request. Sorted by those who received the most up-votes.
Note how the OP makes the mistake that most migrants do – she thinks that building their own home will resolve the problems with New Zealand’s appalling infrastructure, sadly she is unaware of the shoddy building standards, the substandard materials and under-skilled workforce. Then there’s the relative lack of culture, the anti-intellectualism, and distrust of migrants…
Don’t be like the OP. Chose somewhere else to emigrate that is a genuine first world country, one that values its skilled professionals, invests in its youth, and one that has high construction standards. You can read the rest of the thread here.
You may also be interested in
Worst Places to be a Child – NZ Ranked 158 out of 165 for Childhood Rights – “A European advocacy group has placed New Zealand 158th in a field of 165 countries for children’s rights, putting the country on a par with much of central Africa and Saudi Arabia…read on
E2NZ.org 
I really, really, REALLY wish I had found this website before I quit my job and moved to New Zealand from Canada. I fell for the bullshit story, and I am looking forward to going back home and having a life again. As far as I can tell after being here for 4 months, the kiwi “lifestyle” is all about living on as little money as possible, and being happy living and working in cold, damp buildings.
Thank you for presenting the other side of the “100% pure” story.
I live behind a 6 foot high wall in Christchurch NZ. It’s very quiet and hassle free in here behind this fence and that’s just the way I like it. The locals give us wide birth because they think we are weirdos or something They can’t see in – we can see out though and that’s also the way I like it. Sick of being burgled – I lost a mower, tools, all the meat from my freezer in different burglaries, One of my vans was stolen a couple of years back. Three weeks ago a Maori in New Brighton tried to carjack my car from me but failed. I have zone alarms and passive IR lighting, and 4 cameras around my property. Good thing I run my own I.T. business here, I put these things in myself. Sick of feral fuckwits who don’t want to know you but want to know why your fence is there and what you do behind it. My yard is like a monastery and that’s what seems to work here in NZ. Isolation! Soooo… If planning to live here permanently, get ready for high fences, isolation, crime, feral morons and cops who do nothing to help! I am a Kiwi born and bred. I wish I could afford to get the hell out of this godforsaken shit hole!
It has been in the news recently about house owners in a residential neighbourhood in Christchurch being harassed by prostitutes and their pimps. I scratch my head and wonder why this doesn’t seem to be a problem in the rest of New Zealand. Christchurch has been through some tough times but the ratepayers are being treated shoddily when their concerns seem to be secondary to the rights of prostitutes.
NZ is NOT a liveable country long term. The cost of living is too high, and the wages are too low. It isn’t difficult to figure out how much you need to earn in NZ dollars just to make ends meet. It’s just a simple case of creating a spreadsheet with all the costs involved. The last time I did this, which was recently, I worked out that you need AT LEAST $40,000 income, just to cover the basics as a single person.
If you are not earning at least $40,000, you WILL have to decide which essential items you skimp on. For me, I made the decision not to own a car and I haven’t been to a dentist for nearly 25 years.
Permanent living in NZ? Only do it if you have to. I’ve got young kids here so I have little choice but to try at least and it isn’t easy.
I’m a non Anglo Saxon Australia stuck in regional NZ. I won’t name the town but it’s like a Stephen King novel. Physically the place is gorgeous. Almost magical but the freak show is too much to bear.
Finding permanent work has been impossible even though there are jobs here. Not many but enough to at least qualify for one of them given my background and experience. I didn’t count on how incestuous this place could be when it came finding a job or doing business for that matter.
I’ve read about the kiwi character on these boards. The backstabbing leechers and lazy traits. How uncultured they are and inhibited they appear. I agree with all that assessment and also the decent New Zealanders that are around. Too few though. I am also fascinated by the distinct Maori culture. I find I get along with Maori people far more so than the Anglos that dominate proceedings here.
Permanently, live here at your own peril. Especially if you want a rural lifestyle. It comes at a price and I’m not just talking economically. I’m a tolerant person but I’ve been put through the test here and it’s soul sapping stuff. I won’t give up who I am as a character I’m too strong for that but I know I’m up against it here. I’ve grown up in tough neighborhoods in metropolitan Australia and have competed in challenging industries but nothing had prepared me for this Gothic nightmare I now find myself in. It’s a nightmare you never wake up from. It might be the same in regional Australia I don’t know but I don’t think so. The difference between an Australian and a kiwi is an Australian will tell you they don’t like you to your face. A kiwi will tell everyone else but you.
“I’m a non Anglo Saxon Australia stuck in regional NZ. I won’t name the town but it’s like a Stephen King novel. Physically the place is gorgeous. Almost magical but the freak show is too much to bear.”
Yep I so know what you mean. I am out of New Zealand at the moment, and the horror of it comes back in waves. I had nightmares for weeks on end after I left. I have to go back unfortunately as I have not sold my house as yet. When I got on the plane, after a year of it, I was so relieved. I felt like I entered the world of sanity and encountered real human beings again. I lived in a small village in a forest reserve with a sub- human feral bunch of inbred psychopaths. The things that went on in there were beyond belief and the police would never do anything, (there is non-stop crime in various forms) so eventually all the good people had to move out of the village. Now there are just thugs, crims, mental cases and psychos and bent cops. And some weirdos who hate nature and trees. Great. The place is so physically beautiful so its weird having this really ugly sideshow of truly fucked up people, who look as bad on the outside as they are on the inside. Rotten.
Good luck selling the house, Mayadevi. When you do keep on walking and don’t look back. I wish I could do the same but I’ve got to stick around to make sure my kids don’t get affected by this place too much.