Flopsy

Hi
This is the first time I have posted on here - have been a lurker in the forum shadows for some time
My husband and I had decided to try and move our family to NZ and were thinking possibly New Plymouth.
However, at the weekend I had a read online of some NZ newspapers and was astounded at the number of serious crime reports, ie. murder, problems with violent gangs etc.
I would be interested to hear what people's views are on the levels of crime in NZ and particularly New Plymouth?
Thanks,
Flopsy

Wooly_Cow

There are some threads on this subject but basically if you look at the stats, the levels of crime in NZ are about on par with the UK (up in some areas like drug use, and down in others).

However perhaps unlike the UK, crime appears to be more localised.

I don't live in New Plymouth so can't comment on specifics however imho if you pick your suburb / area with a little care the perceived level of crime feels lower than the UK.

lapsed kiwi

Secong the above. I experienced very little crime in the UK (I got randomly punched on Union Street in Plymouth once but that's a rite of passage for a sailor), and have experienced none here apart from seeing the odd bit of tagging. I don't think it should be a major factor in choosing whether to immigrate.

Jo-Chris

Hi,

We have been living in New Plymouth for the past 4 months and haven't seen anything to be worried about. I feel pretty safe here walking around town in the daytime and evening. That murder in the news last week didnt happen in New Plymouth, the murder happened elsewhere and then they dump the body in New Plymouth.
J

Flopsy

Thanks for your responses, guys.
As we have two children, aged 11 and 8, we particularly need to look into this sort of thing.
Where we are in the UK, there is very little crime - we never lock the car and have never locked our backdoor.
(Probably come home and find the car and house gone tonight )

karron

imagine reading the british papers from another nationalities viewpoint and what would you make of them.

dave77

I couldn't agree more, not sure I would want to migrate here if I lived elsewhere!

Genesis

I reckon NP has to be one of the more benign places to live in NZ in terms of crime. Never comes over as a hotspot like South Aukland does and indeed as Palmy does now and then. I would certainly reside there if I didn't have 5 years of roots here. Finally crime and nasty crime can happen anywhere anytime. Nowhere is immune from mit some places just get more of their fair share. NP does not seem to be one of the latter.

gavin1

Hi, me and my partner have been living in new plymouth for about 9 months, it feels really safe not intimidating at all. Pretty much all the suburbs seem safe, maybe motoroa near the port is a little more shady but certainly not unsafe. We live in strandon/fitzroy area near the beach, a bit more expensive but we feel its worth it for location. All in all a lovely place to live and with mt egmont in your view most days thats really nice, especially in winter when its caked in snow!!

kooch

crime in nz is always going to be a can of worms, all depending where you live and if you have been personally been affected by it. i for one have. however it could of been avoided, i was a victim of an oportunist in tauranga. some people are naive enough to think that nz is crime free which is not by a long way, however like previously mentioned, is relative to the population compared to the uk. in five years a have had my car broken into and took my camera/ had a fuel tank full of fuel stolen from my boat and had a headlamp broken by a thug with a bottle in the early hours of the morning. unfortunately crime is a fact of life all over the world and you have to accept it

Justcol

go where the gangs are and there will be crime.
i'm in cambridge in the waikato and the crime column
in the local paper each week is usually a small pub fight,
half a dozen drink drivers and a couple of burgulary's.
Not bad for a town with around 17000 people.
I see cars parked in the main street with windows wide open
because of the heat and have not heard of anything "serious" happening.
Hamilton however, 25k up the road is a different story. still not as bad as
the small town i left in the uk though

luvwelly

http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/
Do some research.

Riverside

We have been in the NP area since June-ish last year. We were first in Spotswood and met the nicest people.
We have a 7 and 14 year old, who walked to school, although the little one was "guided", but both loved both the school and the area. We have now moved to Inglewood, where we have bought a house, and again absolutely no probs.
Nick

sirplug

One thing I've noticed, over the last couple of years, of scouring the NZ Herald and a few local papers, is that not a lot happens in NZ. With a low population, news is on the thin side and so when something 'significant' does happen, it's splashed over all the press. How many muggings, stabbings, murders, etc happen in the UK? There are so many, most of us ignore them unless they are local to us. Car crime is so rife, it doesn't even get reported, yet when I was in NZ in April last year, there was a half page story dedicated to the fact that 5 cars were broken into, in one night, on the North Shore!

The advice is simple, do a little research and stay away from the really cheap to buy or cheap to rent areas....

Flower Pot

Wow! I think where I live if I left the car or house unlocked they would gone in 60 seconds !

Car got stolen NYE, they burgaled friends house and stole our car keys... nice people eh.

My parents live in Orewa, Auckland and they make me laugh when they tell me front page news was someones hanging basket being robbed!