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New Zealand - No covid

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zpyder:
Ok, so what about NZ. One big caveat with what I'm about to say, is that despite being here nearly 5 years, we've still not explored much of the country! However, I'd like to think I've gotten a fairly good view on living here. Hopefully I can break it down.


Many pros and cons stem from the population density
NZ and the UK share an approximately similar land area. Auckland has about 1/4 of the countries population (I think maybe 1.5 million). North island (Auckland is in North Island) has about 3/4. In total the population is about 5.5 million. Auckland, because of the number of people there, feels like London in a lot of respects. Except the traffic isn't quite as bad (but still not great).

Obviously outside of Auckland there's far fewer people. This is great, there's barely any traffic, you can have a very nice beach all to yourself, not much litter etc. The big downside is that because there's fewer people, there's less income from tax. This equates to less money spent on infrastructure. As a result, the roads are terrible. Main motorways/highways linking big hubs are often single carriageway, and windy, and full of potholes. On top of that, kiwi drivers are very very bad. I put a lot of it down to the lack of traffic. Lots of overtaking on blind corners, random u-turns, running red lights, and insane tailgating. Kiwi's just aren't used to dealing with other road users as typically you can drive a long way without coming across another car, so why not overtake on a blind bend, no one will be coming the other way right? I can totally see how Mad Max came out of Australia with the road culture that is here.

Gangs
My god, I just don't get how gangs are tolerated here. They're everywhere, and they're prominent. To the point malls and other places will have signs banning gang patches etc. I don't know how they can ban them though when they're literally tatooed across a members face. I think a lot of the culture with gangs stems from the historic racial discrimination.Generally if you leave them alone then they leave you alone, though there are occasional instances of innocent people getting mixed up in drive bys, kidnappings, and murder.

The country is pretty racist
This bit could go on for ages, so I'll try to keep it short. A heap of racism comes from European settlers effing stuff up with the Maori, and you have a clsssic situation where you have things like Maori who still remember being beaten in school for not speaking english, as well as older white folk who now dislike the current situation where reparations are being made, so they feel hard done by.

That's the real obvious kind of racism. But Kiwis are also pretty naieve to other kinds, and I often hear things in the workplace which would have you up in front of HR in a flash in the UK. Older gents commenting on someones turban for instance, they mean well and are interested, but the joke they just made clearly wasn't in the best of tastes...

Food
If you eat seasonal produce, it's not too expensive. We don't have the supply chains that the UK/europe has. avocados are a good example, in season they can get to about 25p each, off season they can be about £4 each. Fish and chips are cheap (can have a scoop of chips and 2 large fish for £5) but everything is cooked to order, it's not "fast" food.

Dogs
They're treated more as a tool than a family member here. Lots of dogs chained up in yards as guard dogs. Or living in cages as hunting dogs. Many cities have bans on dogs in the central areas, so the dogs lack the socialisation aspects. Also, most forests are no-dog zones either to protect the wildlife or because poison is put down to control rodents and other pests. It's pretty much the polar opposite to how I remember the UK.

Weather
It's just a bit warmer than the UK. And the days are longer. On the shortest day of the year I can still cycle home (just) without needing bike lights, getting home at 5. Also there's only about 3 months of the year that aren't T-shirt and shorts weather.

Despite all the above sounding quite critical and negative, I'll be applying for citizenship next year. The country is pretty awesome, the labour government is awesome (but I fear they're losing power at the moment), there is a fairly decent sense of community, the scenery is awesome. I'm renewing my british passport currently as it will expire before our citizenship application goes through, otherwise I'd let it lapse.

Serious:
All countries are racist to an extent, the only difference is how well they hide the issue.

zpyder:
They don't hide it in NZ. There's far less recognition of what classes as racism here. And almost a complete understanding of why Maori still are so hard done by despite all the reparations

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neXus:

--- Quote ---NZ and the UK share an approximately similar land area. Auckland has about 1/4 of the countries population (I think maybe 1.5 million). North island (Auckland is in North Island) has about 3/4. In total the population is about 5.5 million. Auckland, because of the number of people there, feels like London in a lot of respects. Except the traffic isn't quite as bad (but still not great).
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Auckland having the biggest growth and they have been so bad at sorting roads. North Shore from Albany to City. Was bad getting over the bridge when I was there and years later my dad telling me how it was even worse and even on weekends taking way too long which used to be fine.
All the new housing being built but they were just not sorting where the motorway went into two lanes. (Yes english people you read that right) But when we were last there 2 years ago they were finally working on all that.



--- Quote ---Obviously outside of Auckland there's far fewer people. This is great, there's barely any traffic, you can have a very nice beach all to yourself, not much litter etc. The big downside is that because there's fewer people, there's less income from tax. This equates to less money spent on infrastructure. As a result, the roads are terrible. Main motorways/highways linking big hubs are often single carriageway, and windy, and full of potholes. On top of that, kiwi drivers are very very bad. I put a lot of it down to the lack of traffic. Lots of overtaking on blind corners, random u-turns, running red lights, and insane tailgating. Kiwi's just aren't used to dealing with other road users as typically you can drive a long way without coming across another car, so why not overtake on a blind bend, no one will be coming the other way right? I can totally see how Mad Max came out of Australia with the road culture that is here.
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The old "I will just open my car door and not check because there can not be other people on the road" when you are there! as you know Plus Rain... People just go crazy when it rains and suddenly can not drive. Plus with the roads and the tarmack used they go super glossy and at night all you see is the bloody lights shining back at you and you can hardly see the faded markings!


--- Quote ---If you eat seasonal produce, it's not too expensive. We don't have the supply chains that the UK/europe has. avocados are a good example, in season they can get to about 25p each, off season they can be about £4 each. Fish and chips are cheap (can have a scoop of chips and 2 large fish for £5) but everything is cooked to order, it's not "fast" food.
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Kind of disagree here. Been living in Australia a while after NZ and it is safe to say that more often than not fruit and Veg is expensive in New Zealand in comparison. [/font]Outside of that the "Its NZ" price hike on a lot of electronics is still crazy.
Video games for example still have the "Release at $120" And then come down even 1 week later to $80 business which is silly.





--- Quote ---They're treated more as a tool than a family member here. Lots of dogs chained up in yards as guard dogs. Or living in cages as hunting dogs. Many cities have bans on dogs in the central areas, so the dogs lack the socialisation aspects. Also, most forests are no-dog zones either to protect the wildlife or because poison is put down to control rodents and other pests. It's pretty much the polar opposite to how I remember the UK.[/size]
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Out in the wop wops maybe still yeah but not the case in Auckland for sure.


--- Quote ---It's just a bit warmer than the UK. And the days are longer. On the shortest day of the year I can still cycle home (just) without needing bike lights, getting home at 5. Also there's only about 3 months of the year that aren't T-shirt and shorts weather.
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I do not think this is quite accurate. Warmer for longer than the UK for sure and warmer summers. I think with summer it is important to note that you can have a hot day but night time is still always chilly hey. While it can be 25 and 25 in the UK it will feel hotter in NZ if the sun is out. The thing to tell people here is New Zealand has a thin ozone layer compared to the UK and thus the sun is a lot more intense and you can feel it more and the exposure times are a lot shorter than in the UK and EU. NZ is pretty awesome. 2 points of separation is 100% true so you need to be nice because it can easily come to bite you in the bum. Everyone knows everyone in some way or another. And you generally go out for a run and people say "morning" and generally mean it which is still nice. Your never too far from a beach or lake to do stuff and while as you said 100% need a car to get around its just nice. Not great if your a tech head in many ways but you can not go wrong becoming a kiwi
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Clock'd 0Ne:
I'm glad you're enjoying it out there, whenever I've visited I've always equated a lot of the cultural differences to being a little more like America than the UK in many ways, even down to the long strip towns. I'm not sure I could ever emigrate there like my brother but it's amazing to visit.

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