The Bard of Wigan

What's the deal with class out there in NZ?

Is it as big a mine field as back here in the UK?

southerner

Its what you sit in if you go to school.

The Bard of Wigan

Unfortunately you didn't.

Genesis

Or its what the average kiwi ain't got..apparently. everyone goes on about how this country lacks panache etc..thats why I love it!!! Its soooo me

Eccentric, backwards, shy of the real world...and there is no class system to speak of.

Others say this, the odd dissenter assures you that there is a sort of class system.

I have not yet met a posh kiwi!! I do not feel any type of class thing going on. You will meet the odd one who must drive the best car have the beat address and the longest boat....but thats about money aye?

I wonder what its like in Auckland? I am sure its different there. My comments are coming from a rural perspective. Things are VERY<VERY down to earth here.

And there is certainly NOT a posh accent like there is in the UK.

There is a HUGE socio-economic didvide though.

I think NZ is wonderful because it is sooooooooooooooooooooo unlike anywhere else...and thats why loads of people HATE it!!!!!!

Bo-Jangles

Aye, you're right in a way Genesis, but the class system as always is based around education and what school you go to and we're hardly likely to be rubbing shoulders with them. The old boy networks are alive and well in Auckland and Christchurch even more so. There's plenty of the ladies who lunch with whom having the 'correct' address is key.

There's definitely a huge element of he who has the most toys wins and one only has to look at the number of $130k Porsche Cayennes, multi-million dollar homes, yachts in the harbour and boys toys on the road to know that there is plenty of spare cash slopping around the monied classes.

lardyl

yeah, just spend a few months in certain corporate places and you will find this effect is alive and well here and TBH there is far more of an obvious old-boy network in many areas here than in there was in the UK where a lot of it has been diluted or cracked-down on.........
And don't get me started on the "trade clubs" where outsiders are kept out and bad practice/incompetance pervades........

Nerine

link

Batty

Unfortunately, the same as anywhere, money in no way equals class

pascalr

Definate class system here & old boys network, worse than uk imo.

But they really have no class.

Nerine

Most migrants won't even get to a level within NZ society where'd they'd become aware of how strong the Old Boy Network is - how they all golf together, have their bachs in the same locations and go to the same churches. Us migrants are there to do the work!

lardyl

some of us did and then realised where the writing was and got out to get away from the politics and "treading on eggshells" - as Pas' says it is worse in many ways than in UK and the snobbishness is really there in the open - people have not got to the point in NZ where they see how stupid they look doing it *yet*, like they have in most of Europe/US......

Bellasmum

flipping heck we have a bach but never wanted a porsche

My Dad worked on the roads all his working life and we always owned a bach

Nerine

It's got nothing to do with having a bach, it's having one in the right location and it being worth a lot. Usually on the Coromandel, Pauanui is a good start.

Porsche? maybe, but it has to be European. High end Audi and BMW are quite well favoured.

Avid

Much smaller 'middle class' than the UK and the 'upper class' is practically microscopic. Loads and loads of 'decent working class' and a sizeable underclass that everybody pretends doesn't exist.

Everyone either thinks or pretends that New Zealand is classless so it isn't really a major issue.

bourbon-biscuit

I think Avid is spot on.

I'm not sure how it is in the cities or in business but rurally you can expect to see the huge landowners playing cricket with the farm labourer and shearers as par the course.