The bogus sign that has all the colour and logo of a real DOC sign, asks track uses to

“Please do not defecate in our National Parks. Heavy duty tramping nappies are available from all DOC visitor centres free of charge, and DOC hut wardens carry an emergency supply. Toilets in conservation areas are strictly for urination only.”

Understandingly no one has claimed responsibility for the fake signs but the message appears to be clearly from someone who believe that commercialisation of New Zealand’s walks have led to an increase in human waste pollution.

A recent little incident however showed me that keeping it simple is still the best method of ripping off your credit card.

At a restaurant recently I asked for the bill (aka check). My credit card was processed and promptly returned with a copy of the account All seemed fine until a little later I was attempting to extradite a little cash for a taxi from an automatic teller machine. I then noticed that my credit card was not ‘my credit card’ and it was well and truly past its use by date. The old switch-a-roo credit card trick. I had two likely culprits, either it was the ATM machine or it was the itinerate seasonal waitress back at the restaurant.

The ATM wasn’t talking but the waitress apologised profusely for mixing up my card with another customer who was settling their dinner bill at the same time. A very plausible excuse except for the expiry date on the card was some nine month earlier.

I witness this regularly in the small towns in the South Island of New Zealand. The locals wise up to the window ice road blocks but the visitors get caught day after day. No need for a visitor bed tax when the NZ Police are collecting revenue from tourists.

Although impaired visibility due to iced up car windows clearly is a safety hazard, it is the level of impaired that is the questionable factor.

It all boils down to policing to population ratios. The NZ Police currently has a ratio of one police officer for about every 510 people. That is not a lot in comparison to England who have a police to population ratio of 1 to 375 and Australia on average that has ratio of 1 to 415. Police resources are allocated based on population size and not on crime percentage per population.

Now in some small towns located in the North Island the crime rate can be extremely high. Police have their hands full chasing real criminals. On the other hand some towns in the South Island have crime that is in the magnitude of stolen bicycles, under age drinkers and frosted up windows. Basically they have little to do but enforce the minor infringements.

When in the South Island don’t drive over 54km per hour in built up areas. Put your seat belt on before you start the ignition and not as you leave the parking bay. Don’t overindulge in alcohol the previous night as you may find that you are still a few milligrams over the limit the next morning.

New Zealand’s labour laws were extensively deregulated in the early 1990’s to respond to a market shift in business operating hours. Retailers where freed from the burden of paying staff penal rates for work done on weekends and public holidays. Retailers also flourished with the nation wide introduction of unlimited trading hours. Deregulation also made liquor licences readily available for even the smallest of suburban cafes.

New Zealanders embraced this new found freedom of choice. Cafes and restaurants sprang up to cater for the insatiable coffee culture. But then a new socialist minded government slowly wound back the deregulators clock.

Businesses that were founded during the helicon days of a deregulated labour market also found that their business model relied on trading outside the normal nine to five, Monday to Friday. Cafes experienced their largest turnover occurred on weekends and public holidays.

The Government of the early 2000’s had strong ties to the union movement and pressure soon mounted for labour laws to be punitive towards business. The amendment of the holidays act in 2003 had enormous ramifications on businesses that traded on public holidays.

The restaurant/hospitality industry was among the most visible victims of employee pay rates that required staff to be paid time and a half plus an entitlement to an alternative days holiday for working on a public holiday.

As a form of public protest and to a lesser extent, a means to recoup excessive wage rates, many in the hospitality industry started to charge a 15% Public Holiday Surcharge on top of the menu prices.

Today some cafes and restaurants in the main cities still charge this 15% surcharge although the practice is becoming less frequent. In the tourist resorts you will find the practice universally applied by all in the trade. Some establishments are not content with 15% and have adopted 20% as the preferred public holiday surcharge.

As a retailer in a prior incarnation I employed many staff in stores throughout the country. Many of these stores are located in shopping malls that are required under lease terms to open for trade during public holidays.

Turnover greatly increased on public holidays and was and still is an important bonus to a retailers annual sales. Like all mall based retailers I did not charge a public holiday surcharge. Increases in public holiday wage rates were calculated in the total overall operating expenses and then added to the cost price of a stock unit.

Why is this practice of calculating the extra cost of employing staff on public holidays added into the total overall expenses, beyond the understanding of the hospitality industry? Perhaps I have answered this question previously when I said that their business model relied on operating outside the normal trading hours.

When the business model is working successfully and then the playing field suddenly changes. As was the case of the previous governments change to the employment laws. Restaurants had to find a quick fix for a one off problem that would not effect their pricing structure for most of the year. In otherworlds the hospitality industry did not want to re-write the model or rather re-write the menu prices for an occasional cost overhead problem.

That was many years ago and the cost mark up calculations of the hospitality industry has been reviewed many many times. The added cost should have now been absorbed into the total operating expense but in the case of cafes and restaurants opening in the tourist resorts, the price gouging on public holidays continues.

To add insult to injury, I brunch every day when in New Zealand including public holidays. I have never been charged the surcharge because I am told that I am a regular and a local…. as apposed to a walk in tourist. I am also informed that visitors are generally unaware when the extra is added to the final bill. Some even believe that it is a tax like VAT or GST. It is clearly a price gouge that unfortunately effects visitors disproportionately.

The website does however have an excellent ability to twist many real newsworthy stories akin to those skills of conspiratory theorists.

The sites name ‘Apartheid New Zealand’ and content clearly indicate that the author is probably based in New Zealand. One thing is very clear, you would not want to meet her while visiting this country.

For obvious reasons I have not provided a live link. For those who wish to visit her website, can type this URL into your browser.
newzeelend dot wordpress dot com

The incident that has sparked the warning occurred last week and involved a young couple that were sleeping in their station wagon at the Five Mountains Holiday Park west of Invercargill.

The 22 year old woman was attacked and raped at knife point and the couple also had a substantial amount of money stolen.

Police have arrested a 25 year-old man in relation to the attack.

I had a interesting wine with an Australian couple who fell in love with Queenstown and decided that a holiday home would cement their new NZ relationship.

Armed with no local property market knowledge they did the window shopping research. They decided that with the frequent flights from Australia to Queenstown, and in their case, Sydney, Queenstown was as accessible as Cairns or Noosa and property prices had the added attraction of being quoted in NZ dollars.

The day after the decision to purchase and after much window shopping they made the important step… to step inside a real estate office and talk to an agent.

To cut a long story short they got the grand tour of properties available and decided on a apartment that also offered a rental return while not in use by the owners. The rental yield was extremely attractive and offered a two year rental guarantee by the developer.

That was six months ago and the developer has since gone bankrupt, the apartments that have not sold are currently being marketed for 30% less than the original prices. Owners that wish to resell their investment apartments have to compete with the mortgagee sales and be prepared to take at least a 30% loss in capital value.

The guarantee rental yield was not worth the price of the paper that it was written on and the agreed monthly rental cheques never arrived.

On reflection the Australian couple in question felt they did not do enough market research and was to trusting of the real estate agent.

The premier holiday destinations in New Zealand have more real estate agents per head of population than the large cities. Their favourite hunting time is during the holiday rush period when most city real estate offices are at there quietest. Don’t be surprised to be accosted by an agent when you are simply looking at their window from the street side. They are extremely aggressive.

As Real estate agents in New Zealand work for both the seller and the buyer, their only motivation is for the sales commission.

You will be told the usual lies that centre around the scenario that demand is outstripping supply.

A common ploy with developers is misrepresenting the number of apartments or sections/blocks of land that have been sold. Often you will be shown a site plan that is littered with little red sold stickers. These presale stickers are more often not sales at market value.

In the case of new land subdivisions, these may be sites that the developer is keeping to build spec houses or sites that have been heavily discounted to builders for the same.

In the case of apartment pre sales, the sold properties are often payments to financiers of the development. Often mezzanine financiers take an equity stake in the development that can result in those little red sold stickers.

The report shows that a person had a one in 139 chance of being the victim of a violent crime in Queenstown compared with the national average of a one in 202.

Police in Queenstown have successfully lobbied local council to impose a blanket 4 A.M closing time for licensed premises (pubs, bars and night clubs). The report clearly quantifies this controversial decision.

In Queenstown 17 percent of violent attacks occurred on licensed premises compared with the national average of only 3 percent. The number of violent offenders who had their last drink in a licensed premises was 63 percent in Queenstown compared with the national average of 20 percent.

Critics of the 4 A.M closing time argue that as a international destination, Queenstown should offer visitors international service that is comparable to other holiday hot spots around the world. On a recent trip to Bangkok I note that the Thai Government has a similar early close policy. In their case 1 A.M for bars and clubs and 2 A.M for venues offering live music.

Unfortunately the snow brings the “snow bums” that live on a dime, dine on instant noodles and live in overcrowded rental accommodation no better than a London squat. Some live in cars and many seek temporary employment in the retail and hospitality industries. Others stay as long as their money last while an increasing under class attempt to subsidise their travel costs with the well worn art of fraudulent claims on their travel insurance.

Police in Queenstown report a steady stream of complainants filing theft reports. Many claiming stolen laptops, cameras and snow boards. (you will note that I did not mention skis)

Police are accustom to people lying , it is part of their job to seek the facts or the truth. It therefore takes a very skilled performer to make a false complaint while being subtly questioned as to the circumstances of the loss.

Suspected false complainants are often met by police at the airport departure check-in carrying the stolen snowboard or at the gate with the missing laptop.

Apart from the waste of police resources, the real problem here is the inference on the crime perception of New Zealand as a safe destination. Queenstown police have caught ten tourist making false claims in the last two weeks but many more are not caught. The nationality of last weeks catch was reported to be Australian and British.

New Zealand is portrayed as a clean green and safe holiday destination that often gives tourists a false sense of security. Theft from campervans is rife in the North Island.