You guys have lost your minds. I'm a US citizen and I live in a border town with Canada. You cant go into Canda if you have had a DUI. Canadian customs searched my car as if I was a smuggler one time., and I cross a lot. The point is that, it is their job. All countries protect their borders. Some countries like the US have strict drug laws. Australia has strict agricultural laws. Canda has strict gun laws, they will put you in jail in Canada if you bring your gun, even by accident. A county without borders is not a country.
This. NZ is not just a country but an island that already has the advantage of significant geographical isolation. Our primary industry is.... our primary industries. You think we're strict about a phone? Try bringing in random seeds. We have sniffer dogs at the airport looking for plant and animal materials. Meanwhile, we have the ability to prevent people bringing in the problems that exist internationally. We don't want your rabies or heartworm, your politics, your drugs, your freedom campers and visa jumpers, your child porn, your gun problems or your nuclear power. Don't like it? Don't come. We don't care. We might be the weird kid who hangs out in the corner of the international playgroup, but did the weird kid ever actually care about the cool kids???
AnnaGrowsAMustache if you think NZ is perfect, you need to take a better look. Everyone know that there is no problems in New Zealand. Like the moment you reach there everything stops. Drugs just jump off a shipping container or smuggler abandons his drugs because everyone know there are no drugs in NZ. Child porn does not exist in NZ because they don't use the internet in NZ? Also NZ is a country where 25% is not native born, I'm sure there is a lot of misuse of visas and overstays in NZ, aka visa jumpers. NZ has its own issues.
I never said NZ doesn't have issues. We certainly aren't perfect. We don't have the degree of those problems that other places have, not by a long shot. That's because we're relatively isolated, with a small population. Anyway, I should have made that clearer.
And things kind of do stop when you reach NZ.... some places still have weekend store closings.