Continuing in our series of Migrant Tales, first hand accounts of the migrant experience of New Zealand taken from places around the net.
Today’s tale was a response to a thread we started on a NZ forum which has since closed down.
The author is a British migrant who returned to a better life in the UK. He experienced racial discrimination and hatred whilst living in New Plymouth.
Whilst there he identified a multi-million dollar loss in a bandages contract in a local hospital, but no-one in the chain of command from hospital to the Health Minister was interested in the information he had uncovered.
Thank god I have Left New Zealand
Having lived in New Zealand for 6 1/2 years I am now safely back in the UK. We moved to New Zealand for a “better quality of life” and after 6 1/2 years we have concluded that we had a far superior quality of life in the UK, hence we have come home.
The journey has been long and hard, lived in Auckland then New Plymouth, had a “can do, be positive attitude” only to be sucked dry and felt feeling demoralised, brow beaten and inferior, what quality of life is that!
The Kiwi’s have a good pattern of looking you in the face and lying to it whilst stabbing you in the back. The amount of scamming, corruptness and racial hatred to you as an “immigrant” by people and the Government is astounding. We had our Residency Permit from day one as I had skills the country needed, but after being made redundant in Auckland and 4 years of being told “you are too qualified” I’ve had enough.
I worked as a hospital analyst and identified a massive financial loss to the local hospital that I worked, ($72 Million) in a bandages contract, wrote a report went all the way through the chain of command, Supervisor, Manager, Department and Clinical Manager, Finance Director, Chief Executive Office, Health Minister only to be told we “don’t care” and by the way you can now leave. I was astounded, so I went to the papers, the apathy was amazing. This is just 1 story of many I can post on here.
In short, before you move to NZ with it’s extremely high cost of living versus wage ratio, bad driving, Hoons, taxation, kiwi “can do attitude”, they “can do everything badly”, crap schools etc put down the holiday brochure, obtain the “real” facts of living in NZ, look at your country again and compare, you won’t get on the plane!
Additional information
New Zealand’s education and health ministries are among the worst-performing government departments, according to a report card ranking state agencies and bosses.
The report found excessive red tape, bureaucratic systems and ineffective consultation are hampering government departments.
The Health Ministry, bottom for value for money overall, was “struggling“. It is “really confused, with too many sections not knowing what others are doing, and doing stuff without consultation in the affected communities.”
You can read more about NZ’s health service here.
E2NZ.org 
My name is Brittany, I was born and raised in New Zealand. We have an absolutely beautiful country but recently I lived in America for about seven months with my father (he was born and raised in america) most of my family live in America, too. When i was in america i realised the conditions i was living in.. everybody in new zealand has their hand out for more and more. Everything is about money and “she’ll be right mate”.. this is a gorgeous country but the government has slowly ruined it. We should be proud to be kiwi but i wasnt proud AT ALL to be born in new zealand. I am only 16 years old and i could see the huge difference. People here see Americans as ignorant and dangerous people, the Americans I met where the best people I have ever met in my life. We stayed with my dad’s best friend for three months and they never let us pay for anything. They always drove us anywhere we wanted and they welcomed us into their home with extreme joy. They where so lovely and we made so many new friends. They never wanted anything back from us apart from our company, we didn’t have to pay tax on needs like food and clothes ! I couldn’t believe it.. one of dads friends lived in horrible conditions. He had 14 teenagers in his home and he had three dogs. His house had no Windows and not even a front door. He didnt work. But he chose to live like that, nobody cares. He is happy and he can still pay for food on the plate and his dogs are healthy and little chubby things! His family is healthy and they have fun everyday of their life. These teenagers go to school and he can still pay for petrol in his car. People say it’s not green over there.. hell.. ITS GREEN!. They have one native bird for EVERY state and they have so much beautiful wildlife.. ours have all been killed off. my dad had made so many true friends that I call my uncle’s and aunt’s because they are dad’s family ! After 27 years of being in new zealand, dad got to see all his true friends. Dad was in america for 18 years and he has gained more true friends than he has here. He has one true friend in this country and the rest steal and lie to him. I made more friends than i did here and you go to walmart and a stranger goes out of their way just to open the door for you. It made me feel like royalty being their, everybody was just happy to be alive and they where so lovely towards us. I’m leaving new zealand in two years to live with my family in America with my dad, their are more options for me over in america and i made more friends than I have ever had here. I love the beautiful country we have but really? Is it worth living here when you get taken for granted. Now I see New Zealand as a prison, and it’s sad because this is my home. New zealand should be a sanctuary. I was ashamed to tell my family that I was from New Zealand and that is so wrong considering I’m a kiwi. I’m sorry but I’ve seen the other side, I’ve seen what it’s like to live a little more freely and i did not want to come home. This is my choice, so please don’t be offended any kiwis here. I personally just think this is like a prison.
This is interesting. I’ve been thinking of moving to New Zealand to sort of change things up (I live in Los Angeles), but this site is giving me a new perspective, and your post in particular is interesting because of all the praise you have for the U.S. I’m curious, where in the U.S. did you stay with your dad when you visited?
I am a kiwi I lived in Auckland all my life till the age of 27 with out a problem. I moved to new plymouth cause of the surf not knowing what I was getting into. I was miss diagnosed ar the hospital which cost me years of bad health.I discriminated hard back stabbed ripped off in every way possible I was labeld by the local police as a career crimanal and beaten up by the local police kicked in the head etc. I suffered from a head Injury from the beating which still afects me today. I to went to New plymouth with a can do attitude to only to be shut down and lose everything. I moved back to auckland wen I was 38 my Life now is slowly getting back on track and even the slander of new plymouth haunts me in Auckland cause sum new plymouth locals live in auckland to and what they wrote bout me in there files etc..the term for new plymouth is New P ly mouth. you have been warned.
I’ve had enough of this place too! NZ..what a joke! run by ‘the old boys club’ it’s just a game of monopoly for a select few! No culture to speak of save an indigenous voice in the wilderness under the control of a bunch of megalomaniacs. The concept we endear as being a member of Parliament is to ‘hang in there until the eagle shits then ‘shoot through’ to enjoy the ‘Good Life’.
NZ journalism is presently embroiled in a recently published book by author; Nicky Hager called ‘Dirty Politics’. Well what a storm in a teacup. There are far more important issues facing everyday NZers than some piffle about childish innuendo between idiots in our Government and who said what!
I sincerely hope these people are exposed for their corrupt governance no less the lilly-livered gutless catchpoles and puppets (including the puppeteers) we refer to as the judiciary.
Yes, the more “forward” ones are usually looking to camp out on your generosity. The good ones are there but in such a predator-rich environment, they tend to be hard to find. Naturally! We were unfortunate in finding mainly predators and creeps before the nice ones. By the time we found the nice ones, we were decimated and dying to leave.
My daughter and family left NZ yesterday in search of a better life. Despite their best efforts, they have not made any friends. They have invited kiwis in for meals over and over, some have come but have never invited them back and to our disgust, some accepted invitations and then never bothered to turn up. The lack of manners and social skills have been an eye opener and I know my very disillusioned and disappointed daughter and son in law will never come back.
Yes, this exactly, you have to be wary of how generous or eager to do favors you are – some Kiwis know lonely foreigners are an easy mark and they have no intention of ever repaying those favors. Many Kiwis do not like foreigners unless they are helpful to them in some way – either with money or social status. But don’t judge them all by the “drongos” as they call them – there are certainly decent honest Kiwis out there that are very good friends – only they tend to be the ones that hang back at first, are a bit more difficult to know. Beware the oh so friendly type who needs help moving, babysitting, painting or cleaning up a party mess.
well done ..we are going back in jan after 9 years of hell here…lost money and the thief never went to prision..kiwi so called riends who have stabbed us in the back..oh the list is endless..9 wasted years…sorry wife and son for taking you out here..will never come back
i was there 7 years and it is right you are shocked to see they lie to you in the face then quietly stab you in the back. yes racial hatred. yes poor quality management. as for cost of living, well I was glad that some local kiwis or immigration consultants appreciate that we live there and pay GST so they recognize our financial contributions and therefore have no hatred or objection about us being living there. however, if they want to raise the high gst to more percentage, cheat or game the system to claim ‘mistakes’ when it was all ill faithed damage to your legitimate activities or plans, and all while do other tricks such as defaming Asians etc to make you shunned or socially excluded, then… well, im sorry I couldn’t earn your friendships or happy relationships, maybe the country is only good for short term expensive holiday. its too risky considering how much bullying and lack of cohesiveness among peers exhibit, you’ll be screwed and left damaged and empty handed with nobody to turn to except if you have a big bank account to buy the time of actors.
lol i love ur story!! i feel u, i cant wait to get out this country too!