My wife and I just moved back to the US after living in NZ for 1.5 years. Sure, the cost of living is higher and yes the pay is lower. We went in knowing both of those things. NZ is a great country for people who love nature and the outdoors. The citizenry seem to have a higher level of respect for nature and how to protect it.
There is also socialized medicine and the ACC covering all accidents on NZ soil is great, so comparing costs directly isn't the same.
However not everything is great, it does feel a little isolating being on the other side of the world on a tiny island and their covid controls did start to feel a little draconian. (Even after we got more than 90% of the eligible population vaxed we were still in a strict lockdown with almost no-one allowed through the borders).
Overall I was sad to leave, but our families are both in the US and ultimately it was time to come home.
At first, the average kiwi's opinion was definitely in favor. The lockdowns initially worked to entirely stamp out covid and allowed NZ to return to relatively normal operations while the rest of the world was still in lockdown. But with omicron, even NZ's strict border control couldn't keep it out. Even still most people seemed to favor the lockdowns to slow the spread while we were vaccinating (NZ was near the bottom of the list in receiving vaccines since there was initially no covid circulating in the country.) However I started seeing people begin to complain when the vaccine rates topped 90% and there were still some restrictions, and the borders were still as closed as ever.
That being said, there was still a sizable group in support of continued restrictions both on the population and on the border.
> with omicron, even NZ's strict border control couldn't keep it out.
New Zealander here.
NZ could have remained in isolation, but it didn't.
The government basically decided we needed to open borders and that we would get Covid - borders were opened enough that it was inevitable it would get through.
I can say that successfully eradicating covid in 2020 was awesome (but 20/20 hindsight that the costs were worth it because it worked).
Even then, we still made some very poor decisions, like every country did in its own ways. Taiwan made amazingly good decisions I thought (they started their SARS response in Dec 2019, tracking and isolation).
Disclaimer: just my opinion based on what I saw. I don't have any actual insider information on the government decisions.
There is also socialized medicine and the ACC covering all accidents on NZ soil is great, so comparing costs directly isn't the same.
However not everything is great, it does feel a little isolating being on the other side of the world on a tiny island and their covid controls did start to feel a little draconian. (Even after we got more than 90% of the eligible population vaxed we were still in a strict lockdown with almost no-one allowed through the borders).
Overall I was sad to leave, but our families are both in the US and ultimately it was time to come home.
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