“New Zealand is the Elephant grave yard, if you just want to exist and wait for death it is ideal”
This is the latest in the Migrant Tales series, a collection of first hand accounts of the migrant experience of New Zealand.
In this story the British author tells of 13 years of struggle in New Zealand. This is probably one of the migrants left for New Zealand around the time of the post-9/11 exodus, spurred on by LoTR marketing.
All credit to them for sticking it out for so long. This is why they’re leaving:
“Farewell New Zealand
Time to move on from the struggle, 13 years of adopting and changing to the Kiwi life. It ain’t that bad, alas it ain’t so good.
Why is New Zealand so boring. It has a climate, land mass that is pleasant. Different classes of people.
White NZ
Brown NZ
Asian NZ
Island NZ
The most sad fact of living here has been the racist view from people. My son goes to a school, were the role is made up off 55% Asian children. And sadly i have seen white NZ become more opposed to these children. If you invite immigration, you have to accept the people who arrive.
What is sad in all this, is that i have twice taken NZ companies to court and won both times for discrimination at work. I an British, white and speak 4 languages. Have lived in numerous countries and have my faults.
Learning to adopt and deal with a country that struggles to change has not been easy. What happened to my work life i put down to bad eggs and the kiwi Tall Poppy syndrome.
Yet in the last 3 years, i have seen and heard comments that have made me realize that New Zealand has a core fault of, ‘you ain’t one of us and never will be. That brings all sorts of problems, listened in this forum.
A lot of people move to New Zealand because they are running away from something. I have friends here, expats that moved here to escape the life of their home land. South Africans, who hope that their kids have level playing field.
British/ Irish running from the rat race.
Europe mainland, lack of work, taking the chance.
What i have seen are those that come from small places adopt better, they want a private life and have little interaction with others.
I see New Zealand is the Elephant grave yard, if you just want to exist and wait for death it is ideal.
The big problem for New Zealand now, is immigration being Asian, as white Europeans don’t see New Zealand as a better opportunity anymore.
This will bring even more racism and in the not too distant future, most school children will be Asian.
So if i can return in 100 years and see New Zealand a happy place because the existing poor attitude is removed by the new immigrants, i would stay.
As for now its farewell, to all the lies, the make believe No 8 wire folklore. Who cares, she be right, f…k off to your own country. list is endless
New Zealand has little respect for any other human experience if it is not trapped in their own mind set.
ENJOY THE LIES”
For more in the series click here: Migrant Tales
E2NZ.org 
Why struggle just kill yourself ,that’s what so many kiwis do,suicide rate twice that of the U.S and five times higher than the U.K actually that’s one of the truths of being best in the world at something,the country of hopelessness ,violence and isolation and that’s not just me being negative ,it’s the Kiwi reality.
It has been interesting reading stories from people who have come to my country hoping for, I assume, a better life. It has always puzzled me how, in the news for example, there will be tales of migrants who “love NZ” and “would not want to live anywhere else”. To me this always seemed fake. Sure there are those who do genuinely like it here, but I always wondered ‘what about those that don’t? ‘. Some of the things on here can be a little harsh, but the truth hurts. Everyone is different, some can adjust to our strange way of life and others cannot. If only people who consider moving here could see this website in addition to all the ‘wonderful things’ they see about New Zealand everywhere else. Every country has negatives, that is why it is important to see them before making the decision to move. To those who are considering moving here I wish you all the best and hope you consider not just the positives, but also the negatives.
Almost everything I have read on this site is true. Believe it.
We are held hostage every single weekend in Wellington by the illegal road racing. NEVER. NEVER! NEVER!!! see any police. Moronic normalisation of antisocial behaviour.
You know what the Upper Hutt City Council is doing right now? Planning on closing down a whole series of major rural roads (yes, not just one rural road). This is for a WHOLE Saturday afternoon for an ‘official’ amateur road race that will last 4.5 hours. Affecting hundreds of residents over 10s and 10s of km.
The idiot rural residents (who cannot just walk to the shops, or a doctor) will not be allowed to leave their homes, or to get back into their homes for almost five hours while New Zealanders race around and around their properties in their cars.
I sh*t you not. The council is seriously considering this: http://upperhuttcity.com/roads-transport-parking/temporary-road-closure/
The roads are to be closed to every single resident, but the racers. Just like on Friday and Saturday nights, when decent people all over Wellington just make sure they are in, not out.
You want to complain? You must be crazy. Because this Council warns in the same paragraph that:
‘Submitters’ names and their submissions are usually published’.
What the..?
That is no small threat to people living in an isolated community if they are abused by these people every weekend.
Do these rural idiot people think the police are going to come out to help them if the road racers in the neighborhood don’t like their opinion? Sorry, those rural idiots know, and shut up, because the police are not going to be around to help them. There are no police there. There are not even police here.
All of the above re The Council’s attitude and threat to name names, is just New Zealand’s way of saying, we have the right, as the majority (see, real Kiwi lifestyle). Sincerely, your Council, rates bill in the post – one month to pay.
This is my fake submission on all of this to the Upper Hutt City Council. Unlike New Zealand governance, there are no threats to publish my name here.
Problem is I was born here and doesn’t take an expert to see how dysfunctional our society has become ,so much has become wrong with our society I’m sure that it would take decades to see serious improvement,it took decades to ruin what used to be a really great country to live in .This was never the wealthy Switzerland of the South as imagined by John Key and his cronies it was a really happy and decent place to live ,we used to take care of our sick ,mentally ill and poor,we educated our youth without charge and housed people who needed it,a radical change of government would be a good start to a better future,the foxes have raided The henhouse but that doesn’t need to be the end of our humanity.
Anyone who is contemplating moving here should seriously reconsider. I had a cousin from Europe recently enquire to me about the option and I advised him in no uncertain terms that the adjustment is too much to bear and it comes with little to no payoff. He is not of Anglo Saxon descent and although his command of the language is more than adequate it will not be enough to stave off the discrimination the kiwis are so proud and fond of. I too regret my decision to come here and now I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place cause my kids live here. Oh how I miss being out of here. The boredom and narrow mindedness chips away at your sanity and spirit while the exorbitant cost of living feels like eternal debt. This is the land of damnation. I really mean that sincerely.
Good luck to you. What I learned after 9 years in NZ (having migrated from Silicon Valley to escape the rat race) is it is a cesspool of mediocrity. They fund ‘research’ that is 20 years old, they cater to exploitive employment practices and are essentially a third world nation that clings desparately to thier ‘English heritage.’ I will loudly proclaim to anyone who wants to migrate to NZ to think LONG AND HARD as it will be the worst decision you are likely to make. I cannot tell you how much I regret my decision to move there. If ignorance were a commodity, NZ would have a virtual monopoly.