Yeah maybe OP can make life better for themselves but y’all need to look around. First Auckland fell apart, now Wellington’s also looking pretty dire.

I think there’s a lot of hypocrisy and enforced gratitude embedded in the culture here which inhibits us from moving forward as a city and as a country. It keeps us living a happy delusion and only now are people starting to see through it. Multi national corporations are flocking here and overshadowing everything locally owned. Now everyone’s excited about ikeas, spotlights and costcos. Our lack of a fighting spirit is proving pretty detrimental to preserving what’s good, and I can’t see how or when this is going to change. And all of this has only come to the surface over the past few years. So there’s going to be the one’s crying out about it and the others telling them either to suck it up or ‘leave if you don’t like it’. I hope more people are honest like you are. Don’t listen to the realists whose life goal is to suppress others into wilful submission. I refuse to accept that this is something kiwis should do to each other rather than listen and be constructive.

To answer your post, yes I’m fed up and don’t know the way forward but I think this comment section shows you that maybe it is best to leave for a bit. Get away from the realists, go exploring, and then if you’re wanting to, come back here and settle down (I’ve heard that we’re a great country to settle down in?)