South Islanders what do you think?

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#1104219 7-Aug-2014 16:13

(Not from Auckland) - Went down south for the first time last year, and traveled around most of it. Before I left, my father boasted how friendly southerners were. After going down there and expecting this, the wife and I didn't feel it was any different to being around the north island.

I hate to say this because we love and support our 'cousins' in Christchurch, and we only visited Christchurch for the first time after the earthquakes, but the place was a dump, and pretty scary with drunks vagrants and crime. Definitely not somewhere I want to go again any time soon. (Maybe in 10 or 15 years)

We found Dunedin to be alright. I'd probably most like to live there one day.

meesham

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#1104231 7-Aug-2014 16:46

Places I've lived:

Perth (25 years) - horrible place, full of cashed up bogans who treat people like crap - my wife worked in hospitality there for 8 months and said the same thing.
London (2 years) - not even going to both rating it for friendliness
Christchurch (5 years) - People are pretty friendly in shops, I found it was actually a bit better after the earthquakes
Dunedin (1 year, currently live there) - People are very friendly

I've only been to Auckland and Wellington on the North Island and actually found the people in Auckland a bit friendlier.

lxsw20

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#1104257 7-Aug-2014 17:14

The taxi driver I had out to Auckland Airport yesterday was commenting on how unfriendly Aucklanders are and how he wanted to move to Milton to work in the prison, mostly due to the friendly locals lol.

sdav

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#1104289 7-Aug-2014 18:31

The city is as friendly as the person who is visiting/living there (I.e. You!). I have travelled to lots of cities around the world and have found almost all of them pleasant. Some are big and factory like, like New York but I still struck pleasant people there and enjoyed myself.

tdgeek

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#1104291 7-Aug-2014 18:36

sdav: The city is as friendly as the person who is visiting/living there (I.e. You!). I have travelled to lots of cities around the world and have found almost all of them pleasant. Some are big and factory like, like New York but I still struck pleasant people there and enjoyed myself.

I agree. I found US cities unfriendly, unless you acted friendly, then the "I don't trust anyone" barrier drops.

jeffnz

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#1104299 7-Aug-2014 18:56

sdav: The city is as friendly as the person who is visiting/living there (I.e. You!). I have travelled to lots of cities around the world and have found almost all of them pleasant. Some are big and factory like, like New York but I still struck pleasant people there and enjoyed myself.

I agree with this as well. I was told and heard Parisians were unfriendly to foreigners but I found the complete opposite mainly I believe because I was a visitor and respected the locals ab didn't do the tourist thing.

Auckland is fine and i like living here a lot but a lot I have talked to in SI have this love hate thing with it and anyone from there. Its also very subjective especially if you visit Auckland with a negative attitude towards it you will only see the negative.

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sdav

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#1104303 7-Aug-2014 19:14

jeffnz:
sdav: The city is as friendly as the person who is visiting/living there (I.e. You!). I have travelled to lots of cities around the world and have found almost all of them pleasant. Some are big and factory like, like New York but I still struck pleasant people there and enjoyed myself.

I agree with this as well. I was told and heard Parisians were unfriendly to foreigners but I found the complete opposite mainly I believe because I was a visitor and respected the locals ab didn't do the tourist thing.

Auckland is fine and i like living here a lot but a lot I have talked to in SI have this love hate thing with it and anyone from there. Its also very subjective especially if you visit Auckland with a negative attitude towards it you will only see the negative.

I've been to Paris a couple of times. The first was with my parents when I was 14 who had these pre-conceived ideas they were rude and I got the impression it was through them. When I went back in my 20's it was a completely different story and I think because on part I made the effort.

turnin

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#1105683 10-Aug-2014 00:13

Rode a pushbike a ten years or so back ,from Auckland to Christchurch.
North Island was good but when I got to Picton, I noticed that everybody wanted to know where I was going.
Arrived in Seddon or ward, can't recall, but guy in Service station asked me if I need a place to stay, offered me the KEYS to his house in case he was late home !
stayed at Hotel in Amberley, invited for dinner with owners family.
Then Christchurch which for a big city made me more friends than I've ever had in Auckland.
Overseas experiences are mixed and probably got the tourist treatment anyhow but "people" tend to be friendlier in the smaller towns.

Coil

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#1105685 10-Aug-2014 00:16

lxsw20: The taxi driver I had out to Auckland Airport yesterday was commenting on how unfriendly Aucklanders are and how he wanted to move to Milton to work in the prison, mostly due to the friendly locals lol.

He drives a Taxi? He gets the best of unfriendly and friendly at once..

Dingbatt

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#1105735 10-Aug-2014 08:14

My first question is what is Conde Nest Traveler? Does it rank in the top ten best travel information sites? Couldn't see how many of its readers had responded to its survey.

There is a big difference between living in and visiting a place. I loved visiting London, I hated living there. Even the visiting can depend on the day. I guarantee that the vibe in Auckland for a visitor was totally different when we were 8-1 up in the America's Cup compared to having just lost 9-8.

Really dependent on too many personal factors.

The saying goes something like " meet one a__hole, he's an a__hole, meet a__holes all day, it's likely you're the a__hole."

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#1105746 10-Aug-2014 09:01

Dingbatt: I loved visiting London, I hated living there.

I feel much the same about Auckland. I greatly preferred living in Sydney but as with Auckland, much depends on what part of the city you live in.
The people are friendly in Auckland though - in particular the new kiwis - particularly from various parts of asia - who seem to predominate in many service industries, banks etc.
London - not so much. I recall phone conversations where you'd be asking about a product/service, politely ask "do you supply xyz", and get a one word response "no" - and they'd hang up. Very efficient for them - but a bit hard to get information about anything.

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Fred99

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#1105748 10-Aug-2014 09:06

sdav: The city is as friendly as the person who is visiting/living there (I.e. You!). I have travelled to lots of cities around the world and have found almost all of them pleasant. Some are big and factory like, like New York but I still struck pleasant people there and enjoyed myself.

Been to Detroit?
The friendliest person I found there was a guy selling T-shirts in Greektown with logo "Welcome to Detroit - Now Go Home".

Kyanar

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#1105807 10-Aug-2014 11:24

Having lived in Auckland for 28 years, I would unequivocally disagree with their assertion. Aucklanders are for the most part (with exceptions) arrogant, self-involved, rude, and just downright unpleasant. (As I say, there are exceptions. Unfortunately, even if the exceptions are 99% the remaining 1% are going to sour the opinion on the whole).

Dingbatt:

My first question is what is Conde Nest Traveler? Does it rank in the top ten best travel information sites? Couldn't see how many of its readers had responded to its survey.

Conde Nast is one of the largest magazine publishers, if not THE largest magazine publisher, in the world. Traveler is one of their publications - it's not a website (though they do have a website for it, which I assume contains a subset of the content: http://www.cntraveler.com/)

vexxxboy

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#1105811 10-Aug-2014 11:33

it all comes down to who you meet and what experience you had, the friendliest city i have been to is Algiers, which im pretty sure is way down the list.

Common sense is not as common as you think.

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#1105812 10-Aug-2014 11:33

My wife is working a contract in Auckland at the moment, the first time she has worked anywhere other than Wellington in 10 years of living in NZ.

So far she has commented only that she finds the multi-ethnic nature of the office a blessed relief from the PC bi-cultural culture of Wellington.

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