rob wells1

Hi everyone I was looking for some information before me and my wife make our minds up, we have both recently been involved in a very frightening road rage incident involving 3 men, 3 iron bars and our car windscreen as per ususal nothing is being done about it, this has made our mind up to leave England and move elsewhere, I have family in New Zealand (Uncle has lived there for over 40 years) how easy / difficult will it be to move out to New Zealand? Also we have a Little Dog who my wife couldn't be without, how do we take her with us?

ukkiwi

If you have skills or qualifications in demand then its very easy as the points you need are very low (100) - take a look at http://www.immigration.govt.nz/ fill out an EOI (expression of interest) to see if you can get enough points and take it from there. If not get yourseld over there and start looking for work, or start applying for jobs from the UK - if you get an offer then that should give you the required points.

Plus it shoudnt be a problem taking the dog.

kiwichild

Am sorry to hear of your experience. Unfortuantely this kind of behaviour knows no geographical boundaries. We have had some nasty incidents here in Perth of road rage (in one case a young woman being chased and attacked) and some carjackings in broad daylight at knifepoint

Good luck with moving to NZ but also have you thought about Australia if you don't get into NZ? You can travel, live and work feely between the two countries once you have citizenship of one of these countries.
Also, is it possible to move to a "nicer" part of England, perhaps where these sort of tensions are less prevalent?

Have a good xmas and 2006

Buzzy--Bee

Rob, as you've posted similar messages in the US, Australia and NZ forums I get the feeling that you don't actually want to move "to" anywhere in particular, you just want to move "from" England.

I've lived overseas in more than 1 country - take it from me, you do not leave any problems behind when you emigrate, bad things still happen overseas. All 3 countries you have shown interest in have high crime rates by Global standards. If you want to move somewhere with lower crime may I suggest Singapore or something where I believe crime of this sort is unheard of.

Good luck wherever you end up.

Cheers

Buzzy

livewire

Yes we do have our fair share of this sort of crime here too, only recently someone was convicted for pulling a truck driver from his cab and battering him with a hammer, then there was a kid that threw a chunk of concrete off a road bridge and killed a young motorist, and the mentally disturbed man who stabbed three people in Henderson, one fatally a few weeks back.

The difference in NZ though is that communities care and are shocked when crimes like these happen and the police seem to work hard to catch the people responsible.

sky

What about that poor girl the other day who was run over repeatedly and then had her hands tied behind her back and thrown in the river in Ch.ch. Horrific :scared:

kiwichild

Yeh, I spent years living in ChCh. I know the place and mindset of of the place well. And I was truly shocked when I heard that. I am just wondering if maybe she knew/had some sort of hsitory with the maniac who (allegedly) has done it?

It sickened and saddened me to see that this sort of obscenity could happen in my homeland

Unfortuantely the bastard won't get anywhere near long enough behind bars, knowing how the justice system works in NZ

Condolences to the young woman's family, friends, and other loved ones

Buzzy--Bee

As the recent prison officer's threads have pointed out, NZ has a higher % of it's population in prison that any other country in the world except America.

Cheers

Buzzy

cottageinthesky

I've always felt much much safer here - Wellington - than in England - we came from a small picturesque Bucks village - nearest town being Aylesbury - so hardly deprived inner-city environment. In fact, moving away highlighted for me how the constant need for personal security had impacted my quality of life. It took me a while to stop thinking that running footsteps behind me were not a potential mugger - Oriental Bay is full of runners/joggers - I started to use multi-storey carparks which I avoided in England - I could go on and on, little things that had become part of daily life which made me feel unsafe. Our sons were all in their 20's when we arrived and they too felt there was much less street crime and the drugs scene was not as invasive. Our American friends are amazed that we would even contemplate walking through Courtney Place in central Wellington late at night, yet are even more amazed when they do it and don't feel threatened. Yes, nasty things happen, nowhere is immune to crime but I'm puzzled by where it all happens to make the national statistics so high?

By all accounts, the guy who attacked the Christchurch street worker was mentally ill - reports last night indicated he'd attacked another young woman earlier but had reported to a mental health unit in between the two attacks.

livewire

That murder in Chch was pretty horrific wasn't it. Didn't it happen infront of bystanders who were pretty traumatised by event? We'd heard up here that she was a sex worker and that more than one person was involved so I'm guessing this was a "gangland" type of killing.

Do you remember the murder of backpacker Brigit Brauer? fortunately the police caught the man responsible. Her parents were too upset to travel to NZ at the time but some local people recently got together and paid for them to come over and see the country that their daughter loved so much, i think it was their way of showing how sorry they were for what had happened.

I'd hate to see NZ go down the tubes like the UK has. Hopefully there are enough right thinking, well adjusted people to keep the country half decent for a good few more years yet.

Batty

There's not going to be so much tagging going on now either

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/st...ectID=10361134

And I love this.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/st...ectID=10361154