New Zealand is a great country!

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by giant

Lived in NZ for four years, great people, good times...

Really bad drivers and all the kids aspire to have Subaru WRX/Nissan Skyline (etc) with those annoying and very noisy turbo blow off valves.

Good Sailors and relaxing lifestyle.

Everyone outside of Auckland hates "Aucklanders" even more than they hate Aussies.

Thanks Phil for the refreshingly positive story.

They are known as Jefa's. Just Another F'ing Aucklander.
Not sure they rate lower than Aussies. Kiwis seem to be laid back and friendly to everyone (when not on the road) except the evil Aussie.

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by skipmac

Worst thing I've heard about NZ is one of the local bugs can be very annoying in places, I think mainly around the south island. Guess it's something like a noseeum or a midge?

Some friends of ours visited the South Island, partly to go and anchor where Cook had done. While there, they wanted to go ashore. No see um's too thick. Returned to boat, sprayed inside and closed up. Came out later, long sleeved shirts, had wrapped no-see-um netting over their Tilley hats, and tucked it into the collars of their shirts, and bug juice on hands, the only part left bare. Knew some other guys, who wore face mask and goggles, and a little netting snood over their snorkel, and went ashore like that. Yes, the sandflies are fierce, and it is wise to outwit their biting you. That said, Fiordland is beautiful.

Ann

[seandepagnier]

new zealand is beautiful and interesting to explore the wild places. I enjoyed my time sailing around especially the south island.

The people there in my experience were incompetent. They use more kinds of poison than anywhere. They also are in the process of turning the south island into a desert so that they can export 97% of the milk they produce. The people seem to expect to have the high income of other countries without any technical abilities, and have put the cost on their own environment.

I would say new zealand was my least favorite country overall because of the type of people who live there.

I did return a wallet I found on the road to the police in whangarei.

[lateral]

More than a hint of jaundice there. I wonder if your view would have been different if you had played your cards a little differently?
Right on the poisons though.

[Juho]

Great stories. Let's keep returning wallets. Lack of all kind of corruption and criminality is one of the most essential components of a well working and pleasant society. We are the ones that make ourselves, our friends and the whole society flourish or fail.

[arsenelupiga]

Originally Posted by boat_alexandra

new zealand is beautiful and interesting to explore the wild places. I enjoyed my time sailing around especially the south island.

The people there in my experience were incompetent. They use more kinds of poison than anywhere. They also are in the process of turning the south island into a desert so that they can export 97% of the milk they produce. The people seem to expect to have the high income of other countries without any technical abilities, and have put the cost on their own environment.

I would say new zealand was my least favorite country overall because of the type of people who live there.

I did return a wallet I found on the road to the police in whangarei.

Same in AUS. All UK colonies seem to have same receipe. Explore natural resources to the max, and provide tax to the mother country. There is one island on Whitsundays that was ex mine. Now trying to sell as pristine.

This sucks.

[buzzstar]

NZ is the sort of place and peoples I love in theory, but reality is a bit more harsh. BTW, same thing happened to me on St. Thomas, USVI. Someone called my office, found out where we were moored and the name of the boat, and delivered the wallet, with a chunk of cash and everything intact. Who'd a thunk? But in NZ, one would, almost, expect it, and be surprised if it did not happen.

People who eat boiled mutton can't be all bad though. If they were, they wouldn't.

[Scotty Kiwi]

Good people everywhere. I've lost my wallet three or four times in NZ cities, and it's been returned each and every time. But my special lost wallet story was at Raffles Marina in Singapore.

Put my hand in my shorts pocket to pay for a 5 pm beer and ... NFW (No F*ck*n Wallet). Before I could get my head around retracing steps a lass says staff are looking for me. Two young fellas had found it in the pool and handed it in, including the $ 500 or so cash. I'd diving in and swum accrss instead of walking around.

It took some time to track them down. Once I did, I found the reason. They were from Seychelles, doing odd labouring jobs around the marina, and had bought a derelict open boat, with a view to sailing home at zero cost. If I recall correctly the boat had cost them maybe $ 1500, and they were working to save for supplies, caulking, fishing gear, building a deck, collecting containers etc. No motor. The impression I recall getting was it would take them 3 - 6 months to get the cash this. In returning the wallet they'd apparently not even considered a crooked opportunity to save a month of each of their lives. They refused reward, but I was able to spend a bit of time with them and gift them some stuff.

I wish I had stayed in touch.

[Scotty Kiwi]

Originally Posted by giant

Lived in NZ for four years, great people, good times...

Really bad drivers and all the kids aspire to have Subaru WRX/Nissan Skyline (etc) with those annoying and very noisy turbo blow off valves.

Good Sailors and relaxing lifestyle.

Everyone outside of Auckland hates "Aucklanders" even more than they hate Aussies.

Thanks Phil for the refreshingly positive story.

Oh, and please, I can safely say the people outside of Auckland, by far in general, do not hate Aussies. There's far more sheep then people, and it is said that the farmers give each 14 year old teenage farm boy a sheep to love and cuddle, and this stops the fellas from worrying the farm girls too much. The Boys release a lot of pressure this way, and after 5 years the sheep is turned into a chilled roast and sent to Aussie. Cobber, please don't think about this the next time the gravy is dripping down your chin. <grin> Oh and don't read this if you are a bit sensitive. (Should I have put the warning at the beginning?)

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Juho

Great stories. Let's keep returning wallets. Lack of all kind of corruption and criminality is one of the most essential components of a well working and pleasant society. We are the ones that make ourselves, our friends and the whole society flourish or fail.

And FWIW:
New Zealand is tied with Denmark for the best ranking on the 2016 Corruption Index.
➥ Corruption Perceptions Index 2016 - Transparency International

[Tetepare]

One of my closest mates was a kiwi. We sailed on my boat in USA and fished from his in NZ. We boated and explored Fiji. I went to NZ to be with him just before he died. That was three years ago and I can't find it in me to visit NZ without him.

[AiniA]

If I were half my current age I would move to NZ. It is the most civilized country we have visited out of 40+ countries. it is surprisingly different from Oz. In Australia, people seem to be working very hard to get by. In NZ people seemed able to get by with less work. They dud their job and then headed off to sail, play sports, etc. Auckland does seem different from the rest of the country though. I could imagine it being lifted and moved to Oz, say somewhere between Sydney and Brisbane. It would fit in perfectly. It is a beautiful city though.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by GordMay

And FWIW:
New Zealand is tied with Denmark for the best ranking on the 2016 Corruption Index.
➥ Corruption Perceptions Index 2016 - Transparency International

Also FWIW, New Zealand is in the top ten countries for rate of cannabis use.

[barnakiel]

We did not find NZ all that great.

It seemed expensive, basic and COLD. And all that social classes thing.

Ouffff ...

Maybe we were so spoiled by the tropics that we failed to see the fine print.

Onwards, we visited Australia. Now that was something!

b.

image attribution: yr.no

[barnakiel]

Did I mention RAIN ?

;-(

barnakiel vel killjoy