6 ms·
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 seeme
by wallace_f 10y ago
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.
- toomanybeersies 10y agoI've lived in New Zealand for 22 years and haven't been robbed once, so I don't think a sample size of 1 makes for valid statistics.
- juskrey 10y agoNo experienced robberies does not mean there no robberies, but one experienced robbery means there are robberies.
- GavinMcG 10y agoYes, 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?
- jamesrcole 10y agoI 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).
- philliphaydon 10y agoBorn and raised Kiwi. Robbed in every home I lived in, in Auckland. Devonport, Takapuna, Glenfield.
- developer2 10y agoAre 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.
- 10y ago
- cashmonkey85 10y agoThere 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.
- bitexploder 10y agoHitchhiking 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.
- dgellow 10y agoWhy the "white" adjective? I don't see the relationship between your skin color and the safeness of hitchhiking.
- bitexploder 10y agoWell, 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.) Louis CK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CmzT4OV-w0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CmzT4OV-w0 -- Comedy can express what terse and technical explanations may not. Edit: getting picked up easier usually means less environmental risk so it isn't just safety from whoever is picking you up at play.