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Leave this beautiful little country alone!

Daniel Piotrowski

by Daniel Piotrowski

10 Jan 05:40am

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Filed under: Christchurch Earthquake, Environment, New Zealand

20 comments

Every time NZ Prime Minister John Key’s phone rings, he must fear the worst. Every time your average Kiwi switches on the news, they must dread what they’re about to hear.

The gorgeous NZ interior.

Our tiny neighbour across the Tasman experienced disaster after disaster in 2011.

Unfortunately, the first week of 2012 brought events that jogged painful memories of the events of the previous year - and another tragedy of its own.

On Saturday the ground beneath Christchurch rumbled four times. One quake measured 5.2 on the Richter scale. No damage was reported but it was more than enough to raise anxieties nearly a year after a devastating earthquake claimed 181 lives. 

Out at sea the cargo vessel Rena, which ran aground on a reef near North Island in October last year causing an oil spill that is considered NZ’s “worst ever environmental disaster”, broke in two. More oil was spilt (although thankfully, not huge amounts) and the coastline has been besieged with the contents of the ship’s containers.

But by far the worst news of the week was the deaths of 11 people when the hot-air balloon they were on board erupted in flames. After last year’s disaster on the ground and disaster at sea, a disaster in the sky.

Just as they did in 2011, the faces of this latest tragedy have emerged. The stories of the likes of Stephen Hopkirk, who died in the balloon tragedy on his 50th birthday after being given a ticket by his partner, Belinda, are being told. More public grieving, after a year of grief.

It’s just unfair. 

But what’s perhaps most depressing is that the tragedies of 2011 seem likely to continue to torment NZ into the future.

Earthquake scientists told AAP that aftershocks from the quake could continue for up to 30 years, although Christchurch is unlikely to face an earthquake of similar magnitude to the one of February 2011.

The clean-up operation for the 236-metre Rena is sure to continue in the coming weeks, the mess tormenting the country.

Late last year I tried to survey the mood in New Zealand following the disasters and in the lead-up to the Rugby World Cup grand final, which the Kiwis eventually won.

One Kiwi told me a victory in the World Cup would “be like a dream come true….It’d boost morale hugely, boost confidence in every aspect of our lives.”

The Kiwis have always been known for their fighting spirit - on the sporting field and off. Let’s hope they tap into that spirit this year when it comes to confronting the unstable world around them.

Most commented

20 comments

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    • Mahhrat says:

      05:52am | 10/01/12

      I’d like to give this message to our NZ friends doing it tough right now:

      “When life gives you lemons, don’t make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back! Get mad! I don’t want your damn lemons, what am I supposed to do with these? Demand to see life’s manager! Make life rue the day it thought it could give Cave Johnson lemons! Do you know who I am? I’m the man who’s gonna burn your house down! With the lemons! I’m gonna get my engineers to invent a combustible lemon that burns your house down!”

      ?Cave Johnson[

      Reply

    • TimB says:

      07:07am | 10/01/12

      Man, I was going to follow up with GLaDOS’s response to that…but in context of the air baloon thing it seems like it’s in poor taste :S

      Props for quoting my favourite part of the game though. Cave Johnson better return in the third game.

      ...There better be a third game. Valve has allergies to such things:

      http://i.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/photoshop/7/5/9/109759_v1.jpg

    • Mahhrat says:

      10:16am | 10/01/12

      @TimB, I know, right?  I submit Portal 2 as the best executed story in a game ever.  I don’t particularly enjoy the portal mechanic on its own - it’s still a little fiddly for mine - but the story is just jaw-dropping.

      I think we might see gaming’s “renaissance” in the next three years.  Graphics etc are now at the point where Modern Battlefiend Army 7 is exactly the same.

      On top of that, I’m 36 and been gaming for 30 years.  And I’m not alone.  Shooters will still captivate the n00b h4terz, and that’s great, but there’s enough of us now who want quality stories - and we have deeper pockets.

      I want a story.  They tried with things like Wing Commander IV - The Price of Freedom, but FMV movies were prohibitively expensive considering the numbers they could ship back then.

      Steam has given us the opportunity to distribute all sorts of games - cheap Indie ones with great mechanics, and epic tales like Portal or Starcraft for the big budget players.  As you rightly say, Valve have been all over quality story telling since HL 1.

      Add the “maturity” of gamers now - I’m hardly “old” in gaming terms - my Dad’s working through Skyrim at 60!  We both want great stories, and to have those stories brought out in games that don’t always require 100 hours of playtime like Skyrim does.

      Bring on Portal 3, Heavy Rain 2, L.A. Noire, Starcraft etc etc.

      I just hope it doesn’t become like Hollywood.

    • Wickerman says:

      07:55am | 10/01/12

      Well meaning article, but a little bit patronising & condensending. Big brother Australia saying something like “there there poor little NZ”. I say that as one of the many economic refugees from from that third world nation (NZ) living in Australia. There is an article by Duncan Graham on the troubles with NZ & why people are fleeing it - a net migration outflow of about 35,000. One in five NZ citizens now live overseas. Some points raised:
      1. The economy. NZ isn’t an unlucky country but it doesn’t have massive mineral resources so has to rely on fickle tourism and exporting primary produce.
      2. The minimum wage in NZ is $13 – that’s equal to ten dollars in Australia where the minimum wage is more than AUD $15.
      3. GST is 15 per cent in NZ (ten per cent in Australia) and there’s no exclusion for fresh foods. NZ growth is 1.1 per cent, less than half Australia’s 2.7.
      4. The NZ unemployment rate is 6.3 per cent, compared to 5.3 in Australia
      5 . The climate in most of Australia is warm

      Reply

    • phil says:

      08:27am | 10/01/12

      Cue Australians who will complain about the Kiwis living here making a living, pay tax and since 2001 don’t get handouts.
      The same ones who in some cases wont ever work as hard or be in the position of moving countries and just expect the government and the handouts to carry them.

      Asa Kiwi abroad I do like it here but if i could get a job paying the same sort of money Im on here but live in NZ id be all over it.
      The people are nicer and the weather is more to my liking.

    • SimonFromLakemba says:

      08:59am | 10/01/12

      ‘Cue Australians who will complain about the Kiwis living here making a living’

      ‘Asa Kiwi abroad I do like it here but if i could get a job paying the same sort of money Im on here but live in NZ id be all over it.
      The people are nicer and the weather is more to my liking’

      Seems you don’t know what you want, although your post was very hypocritical.

      Went to Auckland a few months ago, couldn’t wait to get out of there.

    • John Smythe says:

      11:18am | 10/01/12

      @phil Asa Kiwi abroad I do like it here but if i could get a job paying the same sort of money Im on here but live in NZ id be all over it.

      Mate, no need to be a kiwi for that, I’d be in like Flynn if I could get it too. ESPECIALLY, it it remains a yen base salary smile NZ should stay the way it is, as to me, THAT is what is the attractive nature of it.

    • Kika says:

      11:59am | 10/01/12

      My husband went to study in NZ and ended up becoming a citizen. Like most Kiwis he went where the money was and ended up in Queensland. I love NZ. I am an Aussie born and bred and love the lifestyle, the friendliness of the people, the food, the weather. I love it over there. My husband wants our future kids to grow up as Kiwis and not Aussies. Australians are becoming some of the rudest, arrogant, unfriendly people on the planet.

      We will probably move there if not the UK. But finding a job and working out our own retirement will be a bit of a challenge.

    • The Prof says:

      10:38am | 11/01/12

      Phil nobody was whinging about Kiwis coming here and working.  What a stupid comment.  At least wait for a comment before you get on your high horse.

      More than happy for Kiwis to move over or Australians to move over there.  Have many friends who are Kiwis (or pretend they are even though they were born here wink

    • Cate says:

      07:56am | 10/01/12

      While Mother Nature is causing havoc, Father Nature is blaming her temper on climate change.  It’s called the vapours or menapause in little scale of humankind.
      She will get over it in time and settle down, we all just have to be patient and bare the brunt as best we all can.  She will cause heartbreak and break your spirit, but just remember it will pass in time.
      That is until the next cycle begins and it is “Here we go again, batten down the hatches.”
      PS - She doesn’t mean to be cruel or unkind it is the mood swings she can’t control.

      Reply

    • Angry_Of_Mayfair says:

      12:19pm | 10/01/12

      So…......we have had nothing whatsoever to do with what’s happening climate wise? We should all start plopping out snotty larvae because no matter HOW much damage we, as the superior (HAHAHAHA!) species do, it will not affect Mum and Dad Nature? All this is just a natural cycle? Ploise explain?

    • nossy says:

      08:44am | 10/01/12

      I love NZ Daniel and its just so easy to get there and travel around. Anyway heres a small NZ joke to get things moving:
      “Rangi was standing on the door step watching Tama collecting the rubbish.
      As Tama went by he yells out to Rangi
      “Hey bro where’s you bin”??
      Rangi replies, “I bin in Australia”
      “NO” replies Tama “where’s your Wheelie Bin”?
      “Oh I wheelie bin in jail, but I tell people I bin in Australia!!!!!!”.

      Reply

    • Livin says:

      08:55am | 10/01/12

      I think that a year on, there are a lot of people in Australia and In NZ who are just coming to terms with what happened last summer and are counting the costs to economy, property, health,and happiness. Strange and funny things happen to survivors. My brother has ground his teeth all year and now needs dental work, and my nephews are afraid of rain, because they were flooded. They hate the rehash that is happening! They hate seeing their house on flood photos. I think that we all need to be a little bit sensitive and compassionate at this time! Anniversaries are awful.

      Reply

    • Robert S McCormick says:

      09:34am | 10/01/12

      Who actually promotes these “Anniveraries”? Don’t those who were involved in the various disaster have more than enough memories, memories which will never, ever, fade, to last them a lifetime without having some politician seeking publicity or votes re-kindling those horrific times?
      Let people remember in their own, Private, way the horrors they have endured, the deaths of family members & friends
      We in Australia were basically unaffected by the NZ Earthquakes but that does not mean we do not remember what happened there & feel great sadness in our own private way.
      New Zealanders, again basically unaffected by the Qld floods & the fires in Vic which also claimed so many lives, will not forget what happened here.
      Those quiet momentary, private thoughts by Australians & New Zealanders mean more than any puffed up politicians belabouring those events which are arranged for purely political photo opportunites.

      Reply

    • Shane From Melbourne says:

      09:57am | 10/01/12

      Either full political and economic union with NZ or eliminate the CER and informal migration agreement. No half measures.

      Reply

    • Kika says:

      12:04pm | 10/01/12

      I agree. It will have benefits for both countries.

    • Joe says:

      10:52am | 10/01/12

      No, I think the migration agreement works well enough for both countries.

      It provides Australia with immigration department bureaucracy free cheapish labour and professionals, without being too much or too cheap to swamp the labour and professional markets in Australia.

      It provides a lot of Kiwi’s with supplementary income to prop up their average income.  NZs GDP per person would probably be about 15% lower than it is today without this agreement.

      Its generally welfare leach free, Kiwi’s don’t get welfare in Australia and Australian’s don’t get welfare in NZ.

      We share a common heritage and a very similar culture, particularly around the sports we play.

      A monetary union with Australia would be a disaster for NZs small manufacturing and agricultural industry.  Our mining gorilla would kill their economy in about 24 hours flat.

      A political union would mean the end of the worlds best (between world cups) rugby team.

      Sure the Pacific Islanders from NZ coming to Australia, particularly the ones fresh off the Islands, can be a bit rough at times but this isn’t half as rough as the Kiwi’s need to put up with.

      And we probably need to tighten up a bit on the people using migration to NZ as a path way to Australia.

      On the main the migration agreement is working well enough and I see no reason to change something that is working.

      Reply

    • Kika says:

      12:02pm | 10/01/12

      Australians can get the dole in NZ.  We are considered automatic permanent residents as soon as we step foot there, and can become a citizen within 2 weeks. John Howard changed the rules so Kiwi’s can’t do the same here.

    • stephen says:

      03:18pm | 11/01/12

      All we’d get is more bikies and crane operators.

      If new zealanders like it so much here, tell them to go to Indonesia and pay 10 grand and get on a boat like the rest of them - though as far as the character test goes, they’d better have another 10 grand.

    • Traxster says:

      11:03am | 10/01/12

      Nice one Daniel,Kia ora.

      Reply
 
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