What is New Zealand REALLY like?

Question

Obviously, you can't trust all of the New Zealand tourist sites, because they want you to go there. It seems that since I knew what New Zealand was, the notion of something being at all negative about it isn't even a possibility. Now, I'm finding a bit more dirt on the country. Of course no place is perfect, but what I'm asking is: Is it really that wonderful?

I plan to be an English teacher, so where would be the best place to migrate to? I'm from the US. I'm still in high school, but I've been planning to leave this country for a while now. Still, I've heard of low New Zealand salaries and prejudice against foreigners? Is this true--or only prominent in big cities like Auckland?

Thanks very much for all who help out.

Answer 1

New Zealand is honestly really beautiful.

About the person who said we enjoy hitting possums the truth is, no one enjoys killing animals but the little b******s are eating ALL OUR NATIVE TREES!!

IF your in auckland avoid south and west auckland because they have problems with gangs.

Wellington is beautiful but windy

Nelson is beautiful but a bit hippy

Christchurch is beautiful and arty

The weather in NZ can be a bit weird...

NZ's are very conscious of the huge and still growing asian community and we do sort of resent them but NZ's aren't openly racist to them. Teachers are in demand for NZ so there will be a lot of JOb opps. Also there are a lot of private schools that pay HEAPS.

NZ is so culturally diverse and is naturally extremely pure and beautiful. Every city is different.

Answer 2

Well its cool for the people who move here from other countrys, they think its a great place. Like all places it has crime and bad people. But its a great place.

Answer 3

Typical Annual Salaries in New Zealand

Teacher    $40,000 - $70,000

But I wonder how high is living cost

Graduates in the education sector earn relatively attractive salaries by New Zealand standards. For example, experienced school-teachers with no management responsibilities earn $56,000 pa.

University research fellows start at NZ$50,000 and progress to the top of the senior research fellow scale at NZ$73,000 pa.

http://www.emigratenz.org/Work.html

Answer 4

someone asked a similar question the other day so heres what i said to them

People who haven't actually LIVED in NZ have quite mixed opinions about our country (as do those who live here too i guess). But things not to pay attention to:

1. people from other nations obsessions that we have so many sheep, who cares they bring us money and aren't dangerous or anything so why go on about it?

2. People from other nations who say our country is dull and "behind in times" because its not, and its not (NZ was the first country in the world to get eftpos for goodness sake!)

3. Racism, well it exists everywhere unfortunatly but i've never openly encountered any racism in NZ. Unfortunatly any racism that does exist is mainly directed towards asian immigrants as parts of the country (namely Auckland) get such high numbers of them, but even that is nothing major.

I agree with Seanis777 I also live In NZ and wonder where/how some of these people got such warped ideas about our amazing country!!

I have travelled all over the place and NZ will always be home for me.

Dull!!!???!! well clearly some people never made a point of actually leaving their hotel rooms whilst they were here.

Queenstown is known as the adventure capital of the world! our country is full of beaches (swimming, water skiing, fishing, boating, sunbathing) Mountains (skiing, tramping (some of the most amazing world renowned walking tracks in the world) fantastic scenery, snowboarding, mountain climbing). Bunjy jumping was invented in NZ!, white water and black water rafting, caving, canyoning, kayaking, horse riding, the shotover jet these are just but a few of the acticities on offer in NZ.

U2 played here last year, bon jovi January of this year, westlife are here at the moment, the big day out occurs every year in January with bands form all over the world. we have theatre perfomances, ballets, musicals we get them all in NZ

as for our food, well obviously you;re always biased by the food that you grow up with, but we have the best chocolate in the world (i've sampled hand made chocolates in belgium and world famous swiss chocolate but ours is best!) and in fact compared to the UK and USA I think our food is amazing, i put on weight when i got home as i'd missed my favourite foods so much! oh to eat lovely grainy bread again after the sugary stuff you get in the states.

So back to your question yes New Zealand is a wonderful place to stay, a great place to raise kids and somewhere that you could call home forever.

Overall the South island is colder than the north but the top of the south island (blenheim and Nelson) get the most sunshine hours in NZ (over 2500 a hundred a year)

and some info about New Zealands climate

http://www.tourism.net.nz/new-zealand/ab...

also to get an idea of house prices / renting check out this link

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-me-proper...

Good luck with your decision making, and don't let people with chips on their shoulders put you off!

P.S i've never met a NZer who has/or ever would deliberately hit a possum, accidents happen!

Answer 5

If your over 60 and enjoy living in the 1960s you will love it.

Very boring.

Answer 6

Hi.  I am a US citizen who moved to NZ in 1985 and I now have dual citizenship.  I travel back and forth and work in both countries.  Do not move to New Zealand.  NZ has many issues that we as American's do not tolerate, but which NZ does tolerate.  Cost of living here is way too high and saleries are quite low on the world scale, so it is difficult to make ends meet.  All of this is due to the fact that here is no democracy in NZ.  The NZ Govt. stiffles creativity and business, all the while promoting solo parenting and lazyness.  Major issues with violence, believe it or not the crime rate of NZ is 10 times greater that the crime rate of NY City!!!  Lots of crime and violence here in NZ, stay away.  Go to Australia, it's cheaper to live and the wages are significantly greater, so it's easier to make ends meet.  Less crime in Australia and better weather and beaches.

Answer 7

Heaps of sheep.

Answer 8

I had been to many countries. Been in  NZ for 6 yrs. The biggest difference for NZ are:

- a country has no pirated cd or dvd.

- a lot of burglaries (in certain area) that the police has no time to entertain.

- some people drive their cars without current registration, no insurance, no warrant of fitness.

- most shops close at 5.30pm.(so no shopping after that). Some have late night shopping which will close at 9pm !! (very 'late' !)

- if at work, there are tea-break at 10.30am and 3 pm.

- not very competitive in all aspect.

- comparing with Aust, NZ tax rate is higher, gross salary is lower, even the petrol price is higher than Aust (at this moment).

- when looking for recruitment ads, a lot states "must have excellent communication"(even a job as a cleaner), or "must have at least 2 yrs NZ experience" (hope you know what that mean).

If you don't want to be too bored, Auckland is definitely better than any other cities. It is considered the 'biggest' and 'fastest' city.

The nice things are:

- people say "good morning" or "hi" to you when you meet them on the street even they don't know you.

- Everyone is very polite. Especially those doing sells.

Answer 9

Well I have been a teacher in NZ.....as pointed out the salaries go from around 40-70,000 per year...which is ok. The salaries are the same all over the country, but you it depends on how they see the qualifications....try the Teachnz webiste ( below) to help there. I have also put the education gazette which is the main place teachers get job vacancies and will give you an idea as to the places and numbers of jobs available......you might find it interesting to use it to look at the info about the schools themselves....you can find ERO reports ( education review office)  about achools and decile ratings ( 1 lowest socio-economic to 10 being the highest).

You might find some small towns can be more "conservative" than cities, BUT there are lots of migrants all over the place. I lived in Oamaru for a while which has around 13,000 and at the schools there were former UK migrants, quite a few south africans, the odd aussie ...we had an american lady who worked in the special education service ( SES) and was based in our school!

So in summary if you come from a big place in the USA you will find NZ quiet, some say backward, but i refute that...i think we have less choice as the population does not support things like public transport, shops opening on weekends, selection of goods and so on......People are in general friendly and welcoming and schools compared to the UK are good......BUT you will find some not so good schools around ( so note on decile ratings/ERO reports to help)(

Hope it helps!

THere are always bad apples but for the most part kiwis are pretty tolerant of immigrants...you might get some fun hassles ( as I did when I was teaching in the UK...re accents, terms you use).

NZ will seem quiet compared to other more populated places, but it depends on the person. I know a brit who moved here to be in isolatation and lives in the w*p wops ( way out in the back of nowhere) and loves it! Other people may need to be in or near a major city......

Answer 10

New Zealand is Amazing! I spent 6 months there for a semester abroad and never had a bad experience. I would love to move there some day.  Its also one of the safest countries in the world.

They do want teachers so chances are they would let you immigrate. However, they would not let you immigrate until you had sufficient experience teaching or already had a job lined up for when you got there.

I didnt experience any prejudice towards me while i was there. Everyone i met loved americans and EVERYONE is amazingly friendly! some were alittle prejudice towards the asians who migrated and knew very little english, but that was it.

New Zealand's cost of living is lower than in the US, but things are very fairly priced and they have low rates of unemployment and poor.

Answer 11

It is very quiet!

And there is no prejudice against foreginers money wise but be prepared for students to mock your accent

Answer 12

Salaries here are c**p, that's why all our best company directors, doctors, nurses, veterinarians, lawyers, and the like bugger off overseas.

Answer 13

I was in Wellington for a few weeks about a year ago, and loved it. I was there for a job interview. The place was very clean and the people were extremely friendly. And saying its Beautiful would be a understatement.  I have friends to this day that I met on that trip, even though I didn't take the job, and plan to honeymoon there.

Answer 14

i don't know. but if Lucy was my tour guide, i'd be pretty inneressted!!! wouldn't u?

Answer 15

New Zealand is A M A Z I N G =]

It is not boring here at all.

New Zealand is well known for bungy jumpy, canyoning and other extreme sports. There is so many great things to do here that if you say it is boring then you are obviosly rather pesimistic.

Of course Nz aint perfect but I think you will find that there is far less prejudice against foreigners here than lots of other countrys. The salaries in New Zealand may not be the best but the living costs are very low in comparrison to Aussie or England.

Also us Kiwis are very relaxed and friendly..

Wow some people are very pesimistic... and to the reej who complained about possums what isnt there to understand.

Lovely native trees + possum = destroyed trees

Lovely native trees + dead possum = lovely trees

Simple really..

Peace

:D

Answer 16

Well I'm an American teaching High School Social Studies in New Zealand so I can give you a pretty good idea of what you are looking at.  The current starting salary is NZ$45,000 and the tax rate is 20% of what you make up to 38,000 and then 33% of what you make over that and up to 60,000.  Above that they take 39% of what you make.  There is also a12.5% sales tax (they call it GST) on all food, gas etc.  Gas runs about US$6/gallon right now.  

NZ schools are far better than US schools and much better to teach in because they have a very flexible curriculum.  As a social studies teacher I can literally teach whatever topics I want in whatever order I want.  In the US teachers have to stick religiously to the text book the school gives them and teach kids for a standardized test.  There are much fewer behaviour issues in NZ schools and the kids are generally more respectful of teachers.  NZ schools are ranked 3rd in the world by the way behind Finland and Canada.

By the way an earlier poster mentioned we have Eftpos here, that stands fot Electronic Funds Transfer at Point of Sale, it's the same as using a debit card in the US except they use it way more in NZ, it seems like people rarely carry cash.  

The downsides to NZ have been mentioned before.  There is no central heating, but in Auckland the winter temp's are in the upper 50s, so it isn't fridgid.  Just buy a space heater and lots of blankets for night time.  One thing not montioned before is the internet speed.  It is slow! I have so-called broadband here and it's one-tenth the speed of my US broadband connection.  They are trying to improve it though.  

Malls close at 5:30 or 6pm except on Friday, so they get packed with people at lunch hour when everyone does their shopping.  However in Auckland there are a lot of 24 hour services including supermarkets and Denny's restaurants and even video stores.  This doesn't exist out in the country towns though.  Goods and food are generally about 10-20% more expensive than in the US, except for cheese which costs 3 to 4 times the US price and meat is generally double the US cost.  You pay rent weekly here and in Auckland a typical rent on a flat including utilities and internet would run you from NZ$120 to 180 a week depending on the neighbourhood.  

Generally I think NZ feels like California mixed with Hawaii 30 years ago, but without the crowding, pollution or traffic.  People walk around barefoot everywhere, including malls, city streets and kids even go to primary school barefoot quite regularly even in winter, which tells you how mild winter is on North Island.  The teachers at most high schools wear polo shirts and shorts and sneakers to work in warmer months, very laid-back atmosphere.  

Also, schools do have a morning tea break with free tea and coffee provided by the government.  NZ high schools have open campuses with no cafeterias so students just eat lunch outside.  There are no lunch periods, just one school-wide lunch break.  There is much more emphasis put on sport and arts in NZ schools than in the US with sports designed even in high schools for everyone to play not just the best.  You can see that Kiwi kids are much thinner and more fit than their US counterparts.  

There is racism in NZ and regionalism.  People from outside Auckland don't like Aucklanders and vice versa.  The racism is mostly towards Asian migrants and it feels just like attitudes towards Latinos in the US.  There is also some tension between Pakehas (Whites) and Maoris (the Original Polynesian settlers of NZ.) Maoris are still 12-14% of the population here, they weren't wiped out like the Native Americans or Aborigines in Australia.  Also, unlike in the US where an immigrant can become accepted as an American, an immigrant to NZ can never be aceeted as a Kiwi unless they're born there or raised in NZ from a young age.  

So if you are interested in NZ you should look into going to college here.  University of Auckland is ranked 50th in the world and the tuition is about US$14,000/year.  If you do college in the US you'll still have to do a year of teacher training in NZ before you can teach here.  Teachers are in really high demand though and especially English teachers.  The staff at most schools is highly international and the student body, at least in Auckland, even more so.  Half the students in my classes are immigrants like myself.  Teachers can easily get Permanent Residency in NZ which gives you access to the Universal Healthcare system here.

Answer 17

As an American, you will feel reminded of Oregon and Northern California in the 70s here. That's really quite literally what it looks like and feels like, although there is also a strong, European touch to society and the transport side of things.

In a way, New Zealand today is what you'd have if the US West Coast was under British mandate, vibes-wise.

There is the odd thing to drive someone with a US background nuts, of course. It would be spooky if there weren't.

Let me list a few for you:

1. Heating will seem totally archaic to you, and you'll be shaking your head wondering why they can't just install the kind of central heating here they've been using in the US for over 50 years.

2. Attitudes towards animals may seem coldly utilitarian to you. This is no wonder, as they are cash cows, often quite literally. Still, I find it disturbing how so many New Zealanders coldly hit possums on the road on purpose, just because they are considered a pest. They are, but, come on, folks - those cute, fluffy things! It's a blood bath out there. I see at least five dead possums each way on my 20km trip to work. There must be other ways.

3. Prepare yourself for the presence of tailgaters. Somehow, New Zealanders don't get the concept of keeping distance. I often have cars almost touching my rear bumper for hours on end. They aren't trying to pass. They just like snuggling up.

4. Some people do pass. Don't ask how, and where - I see absolute kamikaze stuff daily. Just drive extra-defensively, and never engage in any racing games. Accident statistics here are horrid, NZ is up there with Russia and Hungary when it comes to road deaths.

Answer 18

All countries have their good and their bad.Funnily enough whenever I go to Australia I couod swear their news is from New Zealand.And yet NZ'ers go there to supposedly improve their lifestyles- mainly financially.

New Zealand does have low salaries comparative to the cost of living. If anyone is bored then they must have very limited interests.There is so much in the way of both outdoor activities and cultural activities to do, most people would struggle to do even a small number of the options available.

I doubt prejudice against foreigners is any different to any other country. I have lived and spent a lot of time in the US, UK and visit Australia 2-3 times a year. NZ'ers are considered very friendly generally. That is not to say there are not some with prejudice.But no worse than any other country.

If it is prominent in a ny city Christchurch is most likely the worst.Auckland is a very cosmopolitan city so we are very used to people from a range of cultures.

Scenically New Zealand is very beautiful. We are generally laid back, casual, informal people who love the outdoors. We have fantastic food, coffee, wine etc.

I am unsure whether you mean ESOL English or Secondary school English.

Youmay want to go here to check out immigration requirements for teachers.

www.immigration.govt.nz/