I travelled through New Zealand for many months, and there were parts that I loved about the country. There were also parts that I really didn't like that seemed to be all about a culture which exists there which sees travellers as easy to take advantage of.
As a hiker, I was lumped into a category of travellers called "backpackers," which created frequent distress. The street crime is very real. I was victim of an attempted robbery (luckily I got out on the better end of it, somehow), being charged different prices from locals, being given an enormous fine for sleeping in my car when I was sick and tired with a broken phone, and felt it was unsafe to drive any further. I also found erroneous over-charges on my credit card from two NZ businesses that I spent countless hours disputing until they were removed, and spent many nights in shabby, unprofessional hostels with undesirable staff.
The whole thing was a lot different than my experience backpacking around Europe when I was younger.
However, the nature is really incredible, and relatively unspoiled. There is so much to see in such short distances, and it's one of the best places in the world for hiking. The international culture is wonderful. I made friends from all around the world. Some NZ'ers are incredibly friendly: I was invited into people's homes, given meals and I hitch hiked around the South Island without any incident or problem (I somewhere read (cannot verify) a conspiracy theory that hitch hiking in the US was always relatively safe, but the CIA/FBI created a campaign against it).
That said, many of the most famous and attractive places to visit in NZ were overwhelmingly packed with tourists. Milford Sound in February felt like I was in Beijing. Tongariro was swarmed with too many tourists doing the crossing, all lining up in file one-behind-the-other. Wanaka and Queenstown were a disaster, just too many people.
The worst problems were not even in the Bloomberg article. All of them seemed to have stemmed from working class New Zealanders who had hard-working lives that saw backpackers as an easy target.
There is no anti-tourist feelings in New Zealand at all. You were just experiencing New Zealand like a local. It's an expensive country with not many people. If a shop can price gouge because of no competition it will. Customer service is terrible in general and you might be overcharged.
A "backpacking" is a traveler that's seen positively In New Zealand. Most NZs have gone traveling with a backpack at some point in their lives.
I agree that one case isn't representative of what's happening in general, but it's a bit ironic that you counter their view with evidence also drawn from a single case (your own experience).
Are you being straight up honest? You've been robbed or burglarized at least four times in 22 years, living in four different residences, while living in four separate cities? The odds of that having happened are infinitesimally unlikely. Do you walk around your neighborhood, flaunting the fact you are a millionaire, while living in the poorest districts? Your situation cannot be representative of the norm; you sound like someone who is embellishing, flat out lying, or unnecessarily putting yourself in a position to become a victim. There's just no way your luck is "randomly" that bad.
Edit: I've read your history. You clearly indulge with every comment. You have not been robbed 4 times in 22 years in New Zealand. Pathological liar, you should be ashamed. This is HackerNews, not Reddit - people are not going to give you 1,000 sympathetic upvotes for your invented sob story.
It's like you think crime doesn't exist in New Zealand. Living in Devonport I used to see the local kids climb on the roof of the school and un-screw the light domes off the roof of the hallways and climb in. Or see them get their little brother to climb into the clothing donation bins and pull empty out all the clothes.
Living in Glenfield we used to have washing stolen off the line all the time so we would dry clothes in-doors.
Come home to the back door open with the glass smashed and items taken.
People keep trying to paint NZ as this pretty picture when it's not.
Believe what you want, but Auckland is full of crime. It's full of corruption.
Edit: and in all those area's, my family wasn't the only victims.
> Do you walk around your neighborhood, flaunting the fact you are a millionaire, while living in the poorest districts?
Considering my parents moved out of Auckland because they could no longer afford to live there, there wasn't anything to flaunt. Nor were those 'poor' suburbs.
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Also. Those are not cities, they are suburbs in a single city. Auckland.
>> It's like you think crime doesn't exist in New Zealand.
No, I just find it extremely unlikely for a single family to have been targeted in four separate cities. I firmly believe that any burglar deserves life in jail for their first crime, and tend to try not to blame victims for being targeted, but... 4 times across 4 cities, averaging once every 5-6 years? That doesn't sound legit whatsoever, unless the family is doing something to paint a target on their backs.
>> we used to have washing stolen off the line all the time so we would dry clothes in-doors
I mean no disrespect - frankly it's better for the environment and I would normally applaud - but in this modern age using an outdoor clothesline is a sign of poverty, meaning you at least lived in a poor neighborhood where outdoor drying was common. I would bet that you displayed some indication to your poor neighbors that you were not as poor as them. Maybe you're hanging $30-per-pair of designer underwear on your line while they are hanging $1 budget underwear from Walmart on theirs. You probably own a middle-class brand new car, > $30k off the dealership's lot, compared to their < $500 third-hand vehicle that barely gets them from point A to point B. The moment a poor neighbor living off welfare knows you are even slightly beyond their means, you WILL become their target. You might have been hanging clothes outside (ie: "possibly poor"), but you've shown otherwise that you have more money than someone who must hang their laundry outdoors to make ends meet. There is a perceivable difference between hanging clothes outdoors as an optional luxury, vs. being forced into doing so by being at a financial disadvantage.
Source: only been burglarized once and it was while I was earning an above-average income, while living in a poor neighborhood. I know it was my neighbor who couldn't even afford to have electricity hooked up, and they saw me leaving to work every morning with my laptop case. It's unfortunate and disgusting, but yes - if you live in a poor area with more money and possessions than your neighbors, they will notice and make a victim out of you.
tldr; While you were living in a below-average income neighborhood, most likely working for a living while your neighbors lived on free welfare, you found them stealing from you? Forget your sense of basic entitlement and privacy for a moment; quite simply, am I right or wrong? Again, I'm not insulting you for your likely "above average" situation at the time. I'm merely trying to gauge against my own experience, which is that you will become a victim if you live amongst those who are poorer than you.
Can we be clear that these 4 homes were probably within 15km of each other. They are Suburbs in Auckland City. On the North Shore, which is probably considered the richer part of Auckland.
> but in this modern age using an outdoor clothesline is a sign of poverty
I don't know about the rest of the world, but even in 2017 it's still very common in NZ to hang laundry outside. Most people own houses with a back yard.
My parents no longer live in Auckland, the house they live in has a huge front yard and back yard, even tho they own a washer and a drier, mum prefers to hang washing outside, because it prevents the clothes from shrinking from the heat of the drier, and I quote (cos I rang her today to clarify why she dries her clothes outside) "it prevents burning the smell of soap into the clothes so they don't smell like soap"
> While you were living in a below-average income neighborhood, most likely working for a living while your neighbors lived on free welfare, you found them stealing from you?
Those Suburbs are on the North Shore, the 'poor' / 'low income' suburbs are in South / West Auckland. I doubt you would find many people at all on the north shore who are on the dole.
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Look, New Zealand is a beautiful country, with amazing people, it's my home. But our government sucks, and is pretty corrupt despite what the corruption index tells you. Every 3 years we change government, and its full of promises, and they never deliver. There is so much the government could do to make it worth while for Kiwi's to stay in the country, let alone convince people to move there to start businesses or work. But they continue to hinder the country. I left 11 years ago, and every time I go back it's more and more depressing in Auckland.
I have been robbed at least 4 times, all of which was in Hamilton's various suburbs. Mostly taking things from my garage, 5 bikes, 3 scooters. Stereo and speakers ripped out of my car, my sister had her motor scooter stolen. I have friends that were literally robbed while they are at home in another room, they snuck in and took a Macbook, another laptop and a phone. It happens...
So you're driving scooters (not even one scooter... 3 of them!) around in, let me guess, a poor neighborhood where the average household can barely afford food on their welfare and food stamps, while you manage to have scooters and 5 (let me guess, >= $400 per unit) bikes?! Your friend had a high-end MacBook, other computer(s), and expensive phone(s) - all while their neighbors can't afford a 13 inch CRT television?
Again, I don't mean to make excuses for the criminals. But when you live in a neighborhood whereby you clearly have access to more money and possessions than your neighbors, those neighbors will take advantage. Never live "beyond your means" in daily life compared to your rent. That is my experience. If you cheap out on rent, while using your disposable income to buy fancy things, your neighbors will make a victim out of you.
If you can afford a $3,000 MacBook, you have no business paying < $1,000/month rent. Oh sure, you have the right to do so, and you should be legally protected against such attacks. But that's not how the reality of the world works. Medium (or nearly medium) income households who show off they are living above the wealth of their neighbors, will never live harmoniously among the poor who can't afford the same level of comfort. Fact of life.
If you are going to live in a poor neighborhood, you had better act poor. The moment you step out of your cheap-ass apartment wearing a suit and carrying a laptop, jumping onto a scooter or $50k car instead of a < $100 bike or < $500 used car, you've instantly made yourself an easy target.
It is unreal to me that there's some "NZ has a robbery problem" thread here - of all the things one could come up with or complain about NZ I'm baffled that anything crime-related could be on the (otherwise tiny) list!
What I find a bit strange is that there's a number of people making claims about crime levels, yet they're all basing their claims on personal experience, and seemingly haven't thought to check if there were statistics available online. Just searching for (sans quotes) "new zealand crime statistics" these were among the first few results:
New Zealand's government isn't required to report accurate statistics.
There was a controversial interview about this in the last couple of years. One side was arguing 'what's the point in transparency? It is just going to scare people of moving to places that we are trying to rebuild.'
Get to the ground level in NZ. Walk through Christchurch at night. You have a good chance of a bad encounter, unless you're a stacked dude with quite a bit of muscle on you.
> New Zealand's government isn't required to report accurate statistics.
"isn't required" tells me nothing of how accurate the statistics are.
> Get to the ground level in NZ. Walk through Christchurch at night.
this isn't going to give an accurate picture of what crime levels are in general there or any other place in New Zealand.
Anyway, I have no stake in any of this - I'm not one of the people in this thread who were making any claims about the levels of crime (whether low, medium or high) in NZ.
Yes, in the most trivial possible sense a sample size of 1 can tell you something. But the fact that there are robberies was never in doubt. What value did you think your comment was offering?
I've never been to NZ but I was robbed once. Therefore, the evidence suggests you have greater likelihood of getting robbed if you've never been to NZ, since most who have been there have not been robbed.
Hitchhiking is pretty safe for some slices of the population. Riskier (but probably still safeish for others). 6'2" white dude with a few lbs of muscle -- safer. Small individual who someone might try to take advantage of? Less safe, but I bet the driving is riskier than anything else that might happen. I have hitched backed to my car a few times after trekking on the AT. Many hikers rely on hitching to get around.
Well, I have never been anything other than white, but I gather it is easiest to be white in America. You are much more likely to be picked up and treated well in some parts of rural America. (Rural america is usually next door to the wilderness I have experience hitchhiking in, etc.)
As a hiker, I was lumped into a category of travellers called "backpackers," which created frequent distress. The street crime is very real. I was victim of an attempted robbery (luckily I got out on the better end of it, somehow), being charged different prices from locals, being given an enormous fine for sleeping in my car when I was sick and tired with a broken phone, and felt it was unsafe to drive any further. I also found erroneous over-charges on my credit card from two NZ businesses that I spent countless hours disputing until they were removed, and spent many nights in shabby, unprofessional hostels with undesirable staff.
The whole thing was a lot different than my experience backpacking around Europe when I was younger.
However, the nature is really incredible, and relatively unspoiled. There is so much to see in such short distances, and it's one of the best places in the world for hiking. The international culture is wonderful. I made friends from all around the world. Some NZ'ers are incredibly friendly: I was invited into people's homes, given meals and I hitch hiked around the South Island without any incident or problem (I somewhere read (cannot verify) a conspiracy theory that hitch hiking in the US was always relatively safe, but the CIA/FBI created a campaign against it).
That said, many of the most famous and attractive places to visit in NZ were overwhelmingly packed with tourists. Milford Sound in February felt like I was in Beijing. Tongariro was swarmed with too many tourists doing the crossing, all lining up in file one-behind-the-other. Wanaka and Queenstown were a disaster, just too many people.
The worst problems were not even in the Bloomberg article. All of them seemed to have stemmed from working class New Zealanders who had hard-working lives that saw backpackers as an easy target.