Safety in New Zealand

I live on the South island in a sleepy little town and I generally feel safe at most times, however one of the bigger dangers round about here are the car drivers, they all drive as if there is no one else on the road, and generally tend to ignore zebra crossings, cant vouch for the bigger towns for safety but  the local paper from our nearest medium size town   always seem to be full of incidents of people getting mugged/beat up. Generally I feel safe but always watch out for people drunk who tend to be aggressive and there also seems to be a lot of drug taking amongst the wider population but that seems to be a world wide problem. A lot of Kiwis look at their homeland through rose tinted glasses and wonder why their cars get broken into as a lot tend not to lock them up. In general though it is as safe as anywhere else in the western world. there is however a bit of tension between people of European descent and the native Maori people that bubbles away quietly under the surface, most Maori people I have met are friendly people but I have been told a couple of times to go back home where I came from! most immigrants get told this at least once!.

Hi my name is Jesus and I am reading some differents blocks about NZ before get step forward to move there.
Reading your comments I feel a litle confuse due the ingo I got was the oppsite, as it is a safe and easy country.
I am living today in Sweden and also there are drunk people, drugs, and some tension with the imigrants do not want to work. My question here is, if this issues you mention happens in some social low layers or it is a problem in all levels?

Hallo, thanks for your reply, not sure how to answer your question though, make no mistake NZ suffers from the same problem as the rest of the world with gangs  drugs drinking cultures etc in the big towns especially on the north island. I personally have not come across gangs where  I live on the south island but I do live in a sleepy little place. Going by the reports on tv NZ has 1 of the highest domestic violence rates in the western world and its not always men on women! the bottom line is it depends on which part of the country you live in. New Zealand in general is as safe as anywhere else in the world but make no mistake it is not crime free as a lot of images depict NZ to be. The vast vast majority of the Kiwis are good friendly people but cars do get broken into, houses burgled.etc  however compared with a lot of countries new Zealand is a good place to live. Hope this helps you

I have lived here for 3 years and find NZ to be much safer than the USA. Yes there is crime in NZ and in some areas there seems to be quite a lot. I think most crime is related to drinking and drugging. I feel pretty safe since I don't engage in those sorts of behaviours and neither do my neighbours to the best of my knowledge. I feel safe walking around during the day but probably not at night. I do not feel safe on public transport so I purchased a car about 6 months after I moved here. The final straw with public transport was when I was on a bus in downtown Auckland and some crazy guy hijacked the bus and wouldn't allow the bus driver to stop at any of the stops. Finally the guy had the bus driver pull over and let him off. That was the last time I rode the bus.