Hi - I am a Canadian who migrated 5 years ago to the sunny bay of plenty in NZ. They call this place paradise cause you can fish all year round, and you get the most sunshine hours right here. I am moving back to Canada in the next 2 years... why leave paradise?? Well - I am an I.T pro who is very underpaid for my skill-set, I find managers and directors can get away with treating staff with little or no respect. There are gangsters everywhere that will deliberatly pick on you if you are not Maori, walking down the street at night is a very scary experience as the police do not carry guns and even if there is a problem and you phone them for help, if you are very lucky they may show up the next day, even in cases of assault (as has been reported in the local news). The cost of living is just average but wages are definately lower for the average person. The workers compensation is very low for workers injured on the job, for workers unable to return to their field of practice getting absolutely no re-training or help other then a welfare type system. Currently there are ongoing protest and acts of vandalism due to the unrest of the Maori population, and ongoing battles regarding the treaty between the government and the natives (Maori's). The racism is constantly in your face between the whites called 'pakeha' and the Maori and the Islanders, and it is from every direction. Kids on the street disrespect little old ladies because they are 'Pakeha' and there are heaps of drug and alcohol problems that are not addressed.
In Canada I lived in a major city that also had gangsters and drugs, but the gangsters stayed within the gangster circles, here kids as young as 10 years old will skip school and hang on the street, wearing gang colors, swearing at the police with abandon. On the surface NZ looks nice, but I know quite a few south African and Canadian immigrants that wish they never made the decision to move here. I personally know of 4 Canadians that after being here for over 5 years, are moving back to Canada because the country is going downhill, more violence, more rasism, more crimes against women and children. And I live in a fairly small town, not the big city where some forms of bad behavior are expected.
I just thought maybe some of you reading these, who are going thru so much to get here should really think about this side of life here too. Like I said - it looks nice, but it is not the pretty picture the government paints for the rest of the world. This is a bi-cultural country, not a multi-cultural country.