E2NZ is now at E2NZ.org

This blog is now largely inactive, although we do check-in occasionally to pick up messages.

Since starting this blog E2NZ has had well over a million visitors. Thank you for your continued support in helping us dismantle some of the myths about New Zealand.

Our official blog may now be found at E2NZ.org.

We also have a presence on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. We're looking forward to seeing all of you there.

 

Migrant Tale – New Zealand Citizenship May Be A Way Out

A NZ passport may be a route out

Continuing in our series of Migrant Tales – first hand accounts of the migrant experience of New Zealand, taken from locations around the net.

Today’s tale was first published on the forum at Expatexposed.com, a self help and support, not-for-profit forum, for people living in New Zealand.

It is the only immigration forum on the net to be free of vested interests and corporate sponsorship, and as such portrays a refreshingly realistic image of life in New Zealand for many emigrants.

"Our Story.
I’m so glad I found this website – you can begin to think you are imagining all the negativity. I just wish I had seen it before we moved to NZ.

We arrived in NZ in 2005. Settled firstly in West Auckland where we enjoyed living during the ‘honeymoon period’. Couldn’t quite believe that we had paid over $300k for little more than a wooden shed to live in….. Shocked but anyway…we then decided that we should chase the kiwi dream of a lifestyle block and moved to rural Otago. Mistake number one. Rural town, rural people, rural attitudes….

We then made our second mistake of renovating the house we bought thinking we would get the money back when we sold it. We didn’t, and ended up $30k worse off. Husband couldn’t find decent work so we ended up living off our savings. We moved again, closer to a ‘city’ (pfft!) to increase OH chance of work. Didn’t work. Moved again – now in Christchurch (we moved into our house 2 days after the Feb earthquake). Things going very slightly better now…

Things I miss:
Being able to have a conversation without that ‘delay’
Decent houses with central heating and double glazing, not ones thrown together with a bit of gib board and pink batts.
Walking over footpaths for miles with my dogs
History and culture (seen more in a pot of yoghurt…)
Affordable grocery shopping and decent fruit and veg markets and a range of things to choose from in the supermarket.
A good curry
Being able to watch TV without ‘look how fantastic NZ is’ being forced down my throat everywhere.
Having some savings.

We arrived full of how wonderful our new life was going to be. I am sick of having my decent salary (pre tax) being creamed off by the government to support the majority of this rural, undereducated nation. We don’t have holidays (no wonder the kiwis are such good campers), we can’t afford to go back and visit our family. I am gutted we made the decision to come. I now feel that we can’t return and leave my son behind (he is 22 and happy here living with his girlfriend). My daughter is 13 and I feel she has suffered due to the education system here –she has just started high school. Her peers in the UK seem way ahead. But still, they let anyone into University here so I’m sure she’ll be fine…

We are applying for citizenship so that at least we may be able to consider Australia in the future. I would love to go home, but I’m worried about reports of ‘ping pong poms’, people who get home and hate it, then spend the next few years trying to get back. Maybe I have my rose tinted specs on when I think of ‘home’."

You may also be interested in:

Jobs-driven migration to Oz at high of 53,000 (22/3/2012)- “The Kiwi exodus to Australia has hit a new high, with annual departures reaching 53,000 last month, Statistics New Zealand said yesterday.

New Zealand suffered a net loss of 39,100 people after departure numbers were partially offset by 13,900 arrivals, most of them returning citizens…The overall net loss of 4100 people in the year to February 29 is also the largest since the year ended August 31, 2001, when 4400 people left New Zealand.” read more

Today's posts - click here

Emma Maddison May Still Be Sick And Needing Care In Denmark

A Dutch website said that a documentary about the alleged abduction of 4 year old Emma Maddison was almost not shown in Denmark.

Before the show aired Vicki’s lawyer Peter Ølholm had considered an injunction to prevent it from being broadcast and was in communication with TV2′s about whether it should be stopped..
Peter Ølholm viewed the program and said he thought it was factually incorrect in many respects, the documentary was far from a complete picture of the case.

As we understand it and allowing for problems with translation,  he says the key is the whole question of whether this child is still sick or not. In his opinion if you watch the broadcast, you sit back with the impression that this is a child who is not sick.

In a nutshell, there is no treatment in New Zealand can not really cure Emma of her eating problems and Odense University Hospital is the only place that offers a solution for her.

Talking more about the documentary he says that you’ll see the doctor explain that Emma is healthy. “Yes she is healthy for the specific eating disorder  but she is not a healthy child.” 

“It also appears from the evidence from the court in Frederiksberg, she is below below the weight curve in relation to her age and size” emphasizes Peter Ølholm. He also maintains that Emma receives much needed support in kindergarten, has to be assisted with her eating and that her mother Vicki’s has been given financial help to make up for wages lost due to time spent caring for her daughter.

He says that Emma is mentally fragile. Otherwise, the municipality would not allocate the extra funding and that was not made clear by the television program. He also believes that his client has gone to great lengths to help manage Emma’s condition.

It was on his advice that Vicki decided not to participate in the documentary or otherwise comment on the matter. In the meantime he was working on a written complaint to TV 2 and TV Board.
The full Danish version of this story may be found here 

Our other blogs about this case:
Outpouring of Support For Mother in Emma Maddison ‘Kidnap’ Case



Today's posts - click here

NZ Radio Station Offers Valentine’s Day Divorce Competition (Win your passage out of New Zealand)

 

Win your passage out of New Zealand.

We’ve been tweeting (link) about a NZ radio station’s plans to hold an on-air divorce competition on Valentine’s Day and it set us thinking.

What if a radio station were to offer a fully expenses paid repatriation, or onward migration to another country of choice, for one disaffected migrant family in New Zealand?

Would it be overwhelmed with applicants?

Would you apply and what do you need to re-settle elsewhere.

We not just talking financial help here but logistical assistance: finding work, sorting out difficult legal issues that bind you to New Zealand, re-training, up-skilling, selling your home, improving your health and wellbeing, getting your kids re-educated, moving your aged parents. Anything.

Let’s have your wish lists and tell us why you want to leave.

The best replies will be re-published and given a section all of their own in the blog, please tell us if you don’t want yours included in this.

We suggest December 18, International Migrants Day, as the date on which the ‘competition’ should be held and we will be promoting it at that time through social media.
(p.s. we’ll hold comments open indefinitely on this one on all our sites)

Today's posts - click here

Belgian Girl’s Rapist Has “Gang Connections” – “Killah”

New Zealand has many gangs

For background to this story read our Turangi Campsite Attack posts.
The Sunday Star times reported today that the 16 year old youth, who admitted he’d raped and beaten the five year old Belgian girl at Camp Habitat in Turangi, has “gang connections” and that the family are “rotten apples” The youth may also have committed the crime as part of a gang initiation process.

The Star-Times understands the teen’s father had been associated with the gang, but not since the attack, which shocked New Zealand in the lead-up to Christmas. The boy’s father cannot be named for legal reasons.
The claims were made by several sources close to the investigation.
The family and the boy are connected to a gang,” one said. “The family is gang-associated. It’s not just the father.”
Another source said: “The family are well-recognised as being what they are … rotten apples. Where are you heading in society when you have this underbelly?”…
…The Star-Times has been shown a photo that shows him posing, shirtless, with a gang nickname and an anti-police slogan clearly visible.”

Facebook “Killah”

Presumably that is the same photograph that appears on the public Facebook page of a youth with the same name as the alleged offender. It shows him wild-eyed and bare-chested, his nose and lower face marked with a pen drawn moko, and with the words “Killah” “FTP” (fuck the police) and “Wat Up Naaw” written in rough script across the image. Other pictures on his scant public profile show him involved with a cultural group of young people. The Whaleoil blog has published a blurred faced version of the “Killah” image.

We already know that Turangi locals said that the Mongrel Mob was out in force on the night that the girl was attacked as she lay sleeping in her holiday caravan. We also know that members of the Notorious Chapter of the Mongrel Mob have been involved in the Salvation Army’s residential Hauora treatment programme (for P addicts) which had been held at the holiday camp.

The Star’s news aticle has been discussed on the Trade Me forum, a local New Zealand chat board. These are some of the things that Kiwis are saying about it and about the wider problem of organised gangs in New Zealand, one person calls them “urban terrorists“, another despairs that New Zealand is no longer a good place to raise children (additional thread link)

Warning: there are some pretty graphic descriptions of the outrages perpetrated by gang members in New Zealand, discretion is advised.

• so good of the s.s.t to tell us what we already figured out.

• If the govt can swiftly pass an act concerning Piracy, why can’t they pass an act making Gangs illegal as they did in Holland and Germany.

• the gangs are alive and well in this country,and run a lot of the towns,i know because my dad was an ex angel……..gangs are not nice people and have more going on inside of them than naive people think they know…….his mates used to visit him up until a couple of yours ago and no they werent clean living honest people at all. but i also thought the teen who raped the 5 year old would not be right in the head anyway,he would have a tendancy towards children and pedophilia

• I wish they could eradicate the whole family. My Aunty was the victim of a Gang initiation by two 16 year olds and two 18 year olds. She was brutally raped and murdered and left in an Orchard. She left behind two of her own children and two adopted children. The 16yr olds were out in 18 months. My family and I will always hate gangs, it doesn’t matter which one, they’re all just as evil as each other.

• As soon as the Hells Angels step foot in this country the Police eradicate them/ Yet our home gangs go untouched. Every week 3-5 young women are tortured and raped. These may also be gang connected but, until people begin to see the gangs in this country for what they really are and how many in the government kowtow to them, it will continue. We need to open our eyes and say enough!

• The guys I know who are sent to low security prisons pretty much have to join a gang as soon as they get inside, or be intimidated. And then do what the gang wants. So a young man already looking at being recruited would readily be taken under their wing. None of them enjoy their time in jail, but life outside is often as violent as inside, so no real difference. They just can’t do exactly what they want inside.

• The bigger gangs such as Hells Angles run our gangs. it is where they source a lot of there drugs, business assoiciates and finance from. I have seen minutes from gang meetings and exersice books full of business figures and i can tell you the general public don’t know the half of it and probably just as well. Gangs have lawyers, Accountants, pharmacists etc as active members of these gangs. I have never seen hard proof of a police officer currently as an memeber of a gang but i have certainly met ones that have been. But anyway when you see the gangs family trees they all stem back to the larger overseas gangs such as the Triads and hells angles etc. when we see gangs such as the mongrel mob we see patches and unruly thugs, but never see the the very clean living non tattoed well educated middle man or the well to do white collar suit and tie businesman higher up the chain, the shakers and movers..

• I recall that the police were originally reported as saying that there were were NO gang connections. Did the police lie? In any case, some good can come out of this. Any gang that is involved in violence can be made a banned organisation. It would then be an offence to wear gang clothing/patch, or to associate with each other.

• I think it’s about time to treat these gang members as terrorists, as that’s what they are…urban terrorists. People shouldn’t have to live in fear around them and have innocent people get caught up in their fights with each other.

• what saddens me is the attitude of the mid teenagers towards pregnancy etc. the kids i have contact with have the attitude that the girl shouldn’t have “let herself” get pregnant and its considered by the boys who dump them and carry rabbiting everywhere…

• Yeah my daughters had so many friends end up preggers in the last year its ridiculous… Just so glad she has her head screwed on and is more worried about having a life and a career first.

• the reason there are so many child murders and terrible things happening here is because we have growing number of feral people living in NZ with little or no education,who are continuing to breed,they claim claim benefits after benefits as the system enables them to do so……….but nothing is ever done about it,it will continue to get worse until something is done…….its too easy to get a DPB…and these feral women are doing so.

• “The maximum for rape is 20 years, yet the average sentence is just 8 years” Quote from The Law and Order Referendum.

• Well I said in the other thread that it would be a prospect earning his patch, and I’m right sadly. For all the people thinking that gang members have some type of standard, and raping children is too low does the name Delcelia Whittaker ring any bells at all??? Do any of you remember her stepfather (mongrel mob) boasting about carrying her around upside down like a 6 pack?? a finger in each…well you get the drift. Nothing is too low, too low is celebrated.  He will be looked after in jail and receive his patch when he gets out.

this link has heaps of quotes from off this message board on it already lol http://emigratetonewzealand.wordpress.com/

• Well, it’s a fact now, that we are really starting to get a bad name internationally for violenet crime, rape & murder. That’s really very very sad…..

• A friend of mine, who lived in the country many years ago, was outside in the garden with her children when some gang members walked up the drive-way with a petrol can. She thought they were going to ask for petrol but instead they grabbed her and began to rape her. The oldest child quietly took the others inside and dressed them in their pjamas and watched out the window helplessly while his mother was gang raped. The mother was so traumatised she never told her husband or GP for over a year. The child who had watched was also traumatised and he was affected emotionally for many years to come until it was found out that he had seen everything that had been done to his mother.

• it’s not the first time either, we’ve got a reputation of doing this to tourists, remember the other caravan attack on the female of the 2, down by the river part of a camping. I am seriously thinking it’s not good to raise children in NZ anymore.  If I am going to have grandchildren, maybe it’s good they come to NZ for a holiday instead with their parents, but LOCK their tents and caravans. I really don’t see NZ’s state of law and order getting any better, sad to say. ((((((((((((((((((((((((((((

One particular comment caught our eye, something about the way in which the youth was taken into custody

And to “negotiate” the arrest of this young offender is a new low.. cultural sensitivity maybe ??
I want to hear of doors being busted in, and family members sitting on the floor with their hands on their heads while Police guns are pointed at them as other officers search for the low life….

Now that we know that the family is alleged to be a bad apples and to have gang affiliations, that gives a possible reason for the police’s softly softly approach. Was it to avoid violent conflict with armed gang members and perhaps to give the gang an opportunity to ‘save face’ and distance themselves from the boy’s actions?
New Zealand’s Gangs:
According to the book Gangs by Ross Kemp New Zealand has more gangs per head than any other country in the world, with about seventy major gangs and over 4,000 patched members in a population of about 4,000,000 people.
According to the sociologist Jarrod Gilbert, New Zealand has had problems with youth and street gangs since the 1950s. However organised crime gangs such as those which currently dominate the New Zealand scene mostly date from the 1970s. ‘Gangsta’ style gangs have been a presence in New Zealand since the early 1990s but individual gangs of this type are typically short lived.
New Zealand gangs have generally been heavily influenced by their American counterparts. Although Black Power takes its name from the black liberation movement of the same name, in many ways it and similar gangs are much more akin to white American motorcycle gangs such as the Hell’s Angels. Since the early 1990s newer gangs have primarily been influenced by African American street gangs such as the Crips and Bloods.

New Zealand's Mongrel Mob patch

Mongrel Mob (from Wikipedia)
The Mongrel Mob is a New Zealand gang, originally formed in Hawke’s Bay in the 1960s and early 1970s.
The gang offers a surrogate ‘family’ for young men, most of whom are often alienated from their family via joining. Members are from New Zealand’s Maori, European or other Polynesian ethnic groups, with Maori or part Maori predominating. The gang currently operates in many cities within New Zealand; some of the best known chapters include Mongrel Mob Hastings, Mongrel Mob Porirua and Mongrel Mob Notorious. Mob members are notorious for their tattooed faces and red bandannas.
The name “mongrel mob” originated from the comments of a District Court Judge in the Hawkes Bay in the late 1960s, when he referred to a group of men before him as “nothing but a pack of mongrels”.^[1] The name stuck, and later, similarly named groups sprang up around the country, forming their own independent chapters.
Today there is a network of more than thirty Mongrel Mob chapters throughout New Zealand. They are especially active in King Country, Opotiki and Hastings . The Mongrel Mob’s main rival is a gang called Black Power and there have been several very public and violent clashes between the two gangs over the years.
The gang’s colours are predominantly red and black. The patches usually feature a swastika and a British Bulldog wearing a German Stahlhelm which supposedly is an image intended to offend as it is a British Bulldog wearing the helmet. The patch is worn on the back of “patched members” – those considered loyal and trustworthy enough to be in the gang. The patch will also be tattooed on the member’s body.
A Prospect is a person who is loyal to the gang but is not a “patched member” yet and must normally do errands or “missions” to show his loyalty to his gang. A Prospect normally has a “patched member” to report or “clock in” to. This “patched member” normally decides when it is time for the Prospect to be “patched”.
The hierarchy goes as follows: Captain or President, Vice President, Sergeant at arms, Patched members, Prospects. In some cases they use younger blood gangs as Prospects.

Links in the press to some other NZ gang atrocities
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/tags/mongrel-mob
http://www.hawkesbaytoday.co.nz/news/two-mongrel-mob-members-jailed/1043137/
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/5592814/Call-to-re-open-rape-murder-case-19-years-on
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/4162555/Rapist-took-my-dignity-victim

-/-

Is New Zealand a good place to raise children?
Read our  Facts and Stats about NZ Education and Children’s Issues
Today's posts - click here

11 People Killed In New Zealand Ballooning Tragedy

Eleven people, including the pilot, have been killed in a hot air balloon crash in the Wairarapa.

Pilot Lance Hopping, CEO of Ballooning New Zealand Ltd, and five couples from the Wellington region were killed when their balloon (a Cameron A 210 named "Mr Big" reg. number ZK-XXF) burst into flames and became caught up in powerlines near Carterton this morning, cutting power to the town for some hours.

This is New Zealand's largest air disaster since the death of nine people, including tourists, in a light plane crash at Fox Glacier on 4 Sept 2010. That event went largely unnoticed outside of New Zealand because it happened on the same day as the first Christchurch earthquake. For more read Fox Glacier air crash.

Few people know that New Zealand's first fatal air accident (1899)  involved a balloon which landed in the sea, drowning the pilot.

Another similar tragedy happened in 1995, when a balloon belonging to a company called Balloon Adventures ditched in the sea off Waimairi Beach in Christchurch. Three tourists drowned.

It is not known whether any foreign nationals were involved in today's crash, nor have any names been released other than the pilot's.

The company, Hastings based Early Morning Balloons ltd (Facebook page) is said to be involved and is cooperating with civil aviation investigators. It has issued a statement expressing their condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims.

According to the company's website it charges $350 per person for its Wairarapa flights which take off from behind the paua shop on Kent Street, Clareville, a street criss-crossed with overhead powerlines.

A sequence of photographs taken by local photographer Geoff Walker just days ago shows the balloon seemingly very close to overhead power lines, and one news report stated he was on the ground taking photos as the balloon burst into flames and crashed.

Those photographs are likely to form an important part of the investigation into what went wrong with ZK-XXF.

Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the deceased and with the witnesses to the crash who must've been traumatised by what they've seen.

In a police statement

"Wairarapa Area Commander Inspector Brent Register says Police began receiving reports from eye witnesses about 7:25am, where they reported a hot air balloon in distress.
"It appears the hot air balloon operated by Early Morning Balloons left Kent Street, Carterton (behind The Paua Factory), between 6:40am and 6:45am."
He says after a 45-minute flight, the balloon was to land in a paddock in Somerset Road, Carterton. As the balloon was preparing to land, it hit wires on a power line, causing sparking in the basket.
"At this point, two of the 11 people onboard, believed to be a male and a female, appear to have jumped from the basket."
Inspector Register says the balloon then made a sharp ascent, a fire ignited on board and the balloon plummeted into a paddock approx 200 metres away on Somerset Road.
All 11 people on board, including the pilot and five couples from the wider Wellington region, were killed in the crash.
"We are continuing to work with our partner agencies, which include the Coroner's office, the Civil Aviation Authority, the Transport Accident and Investigation Commission, Dept of Labour, NZ Fire Service and Victim Support."
Inspector Register says a thorough investigation is being conducted to ascertain the cause of the tragedy..."

Video of crash site

Adventure tourism, deaths and regulation
New Zealand has a shocking safety record for some of its tourism activities, something we've often blogged about.

The CAA recently drafted new rules to force all aviation adventure tourism activities, including hot air balloons, microlights, warbirds, and tandem hang gliders and paragliders to hold air operator certificate.

The CAA safeguards civil aviation in New Zealand and has control over which operators can fly passengers and authority to make sure they meet safety standards.
Under Part 115 of the new civil aviation rules, all adventure aviation operators must hold an Operator Certificate.

"For those currently operating under Parts 101, 103, 104, 105, and 106, here are the transition timeframes for gaining a Part 115 Operator Certificate:

• Hot air balloon, hang glider, paraglider, tandem parachute, and parachute drop aircraft operators must be certificated by 1 May 2012.
• Microlight aircraft operations must be certificated by 1 Nov 2012.
• Glider operations must be certificated by 1 May 2013.

Those currently conducting an adventure aviation operation under a Part 119 AOC may continue to do so until the expiry of that certificate, or 10 November 2012, whichever comes first."

Despite several high profile deaths and injuries, a number of prosecutions and the introduction of a auditing and registration system for all tourism operators, we're saddened to learn that these tragedies are still occurring.

An all encompassing set of Adventure tourism regulations finally were enacted in October 2011, three and a half years after the drowning  death of British tourist Emily Jordan sparked a review of the adventure tourism industry within NZ.

Incredibly there is a further delay of three years until all 1,500 adventure tourism businesses within New Zealand must be registered and in possession of a safety audit certificate.

We don't know if Early Morning Balloons ltd was registered or had ever received a safety audit.
More more about adventure tourism safety in NZ read posts tagged accordingly, or our stats and facts page

Today's posts - click here