People seem to fetishise New Zealand like it's some quaint rural paradise, where everybody is really polite and friendly to each other. This article really pain

People seem to fetishise New Zealand like it's some quaint rural paradise, where everybody is really polite and friendly to each other. This article really paints the country like a bunch of country bumpkins. It's a developed country like any other. We have the same problems as other developed countries. Auckland is a city just like any other. That's not to say New Zealand is not amazing, because it is, but it's not perfect. I think that the author did do a very good job at summarising up the national ethos though. It really is about having a go and doing the best with what you've got, it doesn't matter where you're from or who your parents are. Unfortunately, I think this ethos is slowly dying, as people become more sedentary, and a nouveau riche is beginning to emerge, while a generation of kiwis are doomed to a life of renting from them. And I do firmly believe that if it all goes to shit, the rich Americans in Queenstown won't last a week, it will be the cockies (farmers) in their stations that will prevail, having spent a lifetime on the land, fighting nature, all to raise a few sheep.