Is New Zealand Safe For Travellers?

New Zealand cops are efficient, friendly and corruption-free.

Occasionally some twit who knows little about statistics and even less about life comes up with some outrageous stat like “New Zealand is the second most violent country behind South Africa”.  

 What is in the heads of these guys?

In a strict statistical sense it may be true – but that’s because in most cases if the police are called to any sort of domestic dispute they lay charges against someone. Thus our stats are pumped up because all the clowns that hit their wives or husbands are classed as “violent crime”. Most other countries don’t even bother to report it

In other words it’s not that our crime rate is higher, it’s just because we collect better statistics..

The result of tabloid beat-up stories can, however, cause visitors to worry about whether New Zealand is as safe as it seems.

Here’s the truth: Car jacking is unknown. Murders anywhere in the country are still headline national news. Street muggings are rare. Sexual assaults are also headline news. Nobody carries guns – not even the cops. Armed robberies are not an everyday occurrence. 

Now the qualifications – yes, of course, there is the occasional street mugging, rape happens, a very limited number of gang members are armed, and armed robberies are at a rate of about two or three a week nationally. 

 

Here’s the actual numbers: Last year in the whole country there were 46 murders, 1874 robberies, 2204 sexual attacks. “Robberies” includes all forms of robbery – muggings, hold-ups etc – about 7 a day. “Sexual attacks” includes all kinds of situations in which someone was touched in an inappropriate manner – like a man on a bus putting his hand on the knee of the woman alongside him. Rape formed a minor part of the figures.

It is all but unknown for, for instance, a couple of sleeping tourists to be pulled from their campervan or sleepervan and seriously assaulted or robbed. 

How safe are tourists? Provided you take simple precautions, very safe. 

 

What are the risks. 

The most common crime against tourists is theft from vehicles. It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen. The most common location for this is at well known tourist parking spots – for instance, at the head of a walking track. 

 

Local communities are well aware of the problem and sensitive to its implications. In most places they maintain a citizens watch group.

But even the best citizen patrols won’t catch every little street-rodent every time so sometimes someone loses out. In most instances it is kids looking for money, cigarettes, liquor or big-brand clothing. 

Here’s some simple tips to reduce the risk.

The best thing to leave in a car – other than a starving pit-bull – is nothing. If you must park your car on a street take everything of value with you to the hostel or motel. 

A simple thing: :Leave the glove-box open. The sewer rats that prey on parked cars can see that there’s nothing in the glove-box so it isn’t worth busting a window. Even if they go away empty-handed after breaking in, you are left with the cost and inconvenience of replacing a side window. 

A lot of self-drive tourists state that they want a sedan – a car with a boot (OK – trunk if you insist) – because they can store stuff in there. Wrong.  Most car boots are quickly and easily accessed from inside the car. A quick tap on the window to shatter it, reach inside, pull the lever, boot open, stuff gone. Total time 15-20seconds. 

Again, even if they open the boot and find it empty, your stuck with a broken window problem.

In many ways an empty hatchback or station wagon is still the best protection.

What about personal safety?

The major cities are relatively safe even in the downtown areas. I can think of nowhere in Auckland that would be regarded as a no-go zone for tourists. A young woman on her own would need to be cautious in dark side street. – but, hey, 99,999 times out of 100,000 she’d be quite safe. Why take the risk if you don’t have to?

A couple walking down a side street is unlikely to be accosted. Sure, it happens, but it’s not a prevalent offence. Again, simple precautions like avoiding dark streets with loitering youths is still street smart.

I’m 1.8m tall, slimmish and grey-haired. I.e. I’m no 400 pound gorilla that would be safe even in LAs south west area. But I can not think of any street in downtown Auckland. Wellington ort Christchurch that I would feel scared to walk down in the middle of the night. The only proviso to that is in the wee small hours of the morning – say 2am to 4am – when drunken yobbos are finally thrown out of the nearest downtown watering hole.  And you know what a drunk can be like – looking for trouble and wanting to take on the world. Just ignore them, don’t engage and move on. 

On the rare occasions that a tourist has been robbed in the downtown area of Auckland it usually makes the tv news that night. How rare is that?

What about theft in hostels. Yeah, yeah – again it happens but it’s not prevalent.

What do you do if you have a problem? Obviously , go to the police. The NZ Police have a proud record of corruption-free service. You need have no worry that the copper you talk to is on the take. Again, it’s all but an unknown. You should expect to get immediate attention and assistance.

David Morris is a freelance New Zealand travel writer.  You can get his free EBook, “A New Zealand Travel Guide” at http://new-zealand-travel-guide.com/Download request.htm

Auckland’s West Coast Beaches had a bad week

Two drownings at Piha and a fatal shark attack at Muriwai a couple of weeks ago might tend to suggest that Auckland’s West Coast beaches are a place to avoid. No such thing.

Shark attacks are rare in New Zealand. There have only been 11 fatal attacks since 1852 – and this in a country where swimming in the sea is a popular recreation.

Piha Beach


But the drownings are a different story. West Coast beaches, and Piha in particular, have dangerous rips, the currents created by water flowing back out to sea. After a wave breaks on the shore, the water has to return to sea. The resulting current is called a rip. If you get caught in it you will be swept along with it.

The drownings occurred when three men went swimming at night, fully clothed (and wearing jeans!) and chose to swim in a strong rip close to Piha’s Lion Rock. Even for a strong swimmer that would be risky. These guys had no chance. They were gone before the lifeguards could turn to and rescue them.

Their fate underlies the importance, especially for overseas visitors unfamiliar with ocean beaches, to be extremely cautious when swimming in the sea.

Ideally you should swim on a patrolled beach – and always, always swim between the flags. Idiots go away from the patrolled area because they want to get away from the crowds. Not knowing the ways of the sea they choose to swim in an area of calm water.  That smooth water is a death trap. That’s a rip. They get into difficulties and it can be several critical minutes before their plight is reported and longer for the lifeguards to race down the beach and come to their aid.

Then my three daughters, a 21-year-old and two 15-year-olds, all lifeguards at North Piha, have to race into the surf ,  putting their own lives on the line, to rescue them.

To find out more about Auckland and its beaches go to my travel site  New Zealand Travel Guide .

Queenstown Liquor Ban Is Lazy Law, Lazier Policing

Just writing about Queenstown food choices in my (Not Quite) Complete Guide to New Zealand Travel and I suggested that a great meal - and a cheap one at that - is to get a seafood basket from Aggys Shack on the lake front, grab a bottle of local wine and a couple of plastic glasses and sit down at the lake edge to enjoy fine dining with a million dollar view.

Then the hand of the Dark Lords at Lakes District Council cast a shadow over the idea.

There's a 24-hour liquor ban in downtown Queenstown between Dec 27 and Jan 6 and during festival week. So dining al fresco con vino is a no-no during these most popular dates.

Why?

This sounds for all the world like a classic autocratic authority response to a problem that doesn't, or at the very least, shouldn't, exist.

The usual approach by authorities in this situation is to take a rock-breaker to a problem the size of a pebble.

First question: Does the problem really exist? Are visitors to the town so drunk and disorderly during the daylight and early evening hours that the local constabulary can't deal with them? I have no problem with a ban between 10pm and 6am at certain times of the year (does it really need to be year-round) but, really, is there widespread, uncontrollable agro on the streets during the day??

Second Question: If there is hooliganism abroad on the streets, why not deal with that problem directly instead of punishing everybody?

Catch and release. Round up the drunks, leave them to contemplate the grim bare walls of a jail cell over night and release them in the morning, thus leaving the law-abiding citizenry free to enjoy the finest fruits of ocean and vine amid the splendour of the Wakatipu landscape.

The present rules are lazy law and even lazier policing.

Queenstown Is A Bargain

HOT DEAL: Right now Queenstown is a red-hot raving bargain.  You can get return flights ex-Auckland with either carrier for around $330.  A more-than-reasonable motel - Colonial Village - can he had for $90 a night or Rydges Lakeland Hotel, a 3-Star Plus property, for the same money. The Millenium, a 4-Star Plus hotel, is $105 a night. And this is Winter Festival week.

Southland's Wild, Bootleg Past

The Golden Guitar awards have just finished in Gore, New Zealand, but the town has another claim to fame. Sly grog!

The hill country near Gore is called the Hokonui Hills and while many NZers may not know of their existence or their location, nevertheless they've heard of Hokonui.  It is the name for moonshine, bootleg hooch . . illicit whisky that used to be brewed in them thar hills.

In 1903 the area around the region voted to "go dry" - in other words prohibition of the sale of alcohol. That no-licence prohibition continued until 1954. But the the stills in the hills of Hokonui passed into the nation's folklore as they turned out a whisky to quench the thirst of a waiting and welcoming market.

Along with other facets of the Highland heritage the early settlers brought with them a knowledge of whisky distilling. Though they were otherwise upright, god-fearing, law-abiding men, the prohibition against the distilling and selling of whisky was something they just could not, in all conscience, see as applicable to their particular situation. It was a curse visited upon them by a bunch of holier-than-thou, misguided sassenachs.

The original Hokonui is said to have been of the highest quality, but later brews were made more with an eye for a fast buck than a pride in producing a fine wee dram.

The distillers went to inordinate lengths to hide the location of the stills. These were heated by burning manuka, a scrubby tree with wood that burns with a hot, aromatic flame. To hide the tell-tale columns of smoke literally miles of pipes were laid underground through the bush to duct the smoke away from the still site. Often when the authorities found the suspicious smoke

As early as 1924 the aeroplane was being used to hunt the stills - reminiscent of the use of aerial hunts today for marijuana growers. Planes were used to overcome the sophisticated lookout systems used by the distillers which enabled them to escape - sometimes just in the nick of time, leaving behind still warm fire-beds for the police to find.
There is a genuine Hokonui still preserved in the museum. It took quite a scrap with the authorities to get it there.  The police claimed it was required for tuition purposes at the Police Training School. Finally the government agreed that it all sounded like bureaucratic humbug and it was handed over to the Southland Museum.
Editorialising on the occasion, the local paper, the Mataura Ensign, said "This noble symbol testifying to the initiative and enterprise of our forefathers, with implications of freedom and good cheer, has finally come home.
It is now on loan to the Hokonui Moonshine Museum where you can catch up with some of Southland's rollicking past,. 

Overdue Overhaul for the Overlander

Kiwirail has announced that it is going to give the Auckland/Wellington Overlander train service a complete makeover. Not before time.

In theory this train journey should be one of the world's great train trips, if for no other reason that the engineering marvels needed to build it. 

The massive viaducts necessary to bridge the central North Island's hill country for example. And the famous Raurimu Spiral . . .  it was a world first in railway engineering, creating a track layout that literally crossed its own tracks.


The service has suffered from dodgy old carriages, some of them over 60 years old that have been given once -over-lightly refurbishment - and that some years ago,.

The new carriages are being poached from the Coastal Pacific  route between Picton and Christchurch. They have large viewing windows for a better customer experience. The onboard crew will have new uniforms, there'll be a new menu and the journey will be faster because they have reduced the number of stops.

Let's face it with air fares AKL/WLG as cheap as $39 nobody is going to use the train as a way of getting from A to B.  It's only future is as a tourist attraction and that means ramping up the whole experience package.

Got to say, on past performance, I don't hold out much hope, but, hey, these are new days, new management, and hopefully a more creative approach to creating great new product.

It starts a three-time a week run in each direction from June 25.

Christchurch Eateries Decimated

I can not believe how many restaurants and cafes Christchurch has lost.  I knew it was bad but until today I had no idea just how bad. 

If a Roman legion failed to perform in battle the officers would execute every tenth man . . . thus the term decimated.  That's at least what has happened to a city that used to have an excellent dining environment. In the central city I would guess that nine out of ten eateries have closed permanently.

Right now I'm writing the Christchurch page of my extended Travelguide to New Zealand and I'm slogging through all the restaurant options to select the best. 

Time after time when I look up an entry I'm told that the building has been condemned and the restaurant will not re-open.  There seem to be literally dozens and dozens of eateries - including some of the city's best - that have disappeared never to return. 

Sadly some of my favourite watering holes now lie in ruins in the red zone and the promenade of eateries fronting the river along Oxford St are similarly momentarily unavailable, but there are still some posh nosh spots to be savoured. Spagalimis, 50 On The Park at the George Hotel,  Cathays at Hornby for cheap Chinese, Chinwag Eathai Victoria, Cook.n With Gas,  Corianders for Indian, Edesia out at Addington, JC’s Place Chinese restaurant at Riccarton, JDV  at Merivale, and if you’re out that way and prefer Thai try Merry Thai, Nobanno in Colombo St, Pescatore another highly rated George Hotel option, Rotherhams of Riccarton,  Servantis in Burnside.  


Read more about Christchurch at A New Zealand Travel Guide