AUCKLAND OBSERVATIONS

I'm about 30 hours away from leaving New Zealand and returning to Fiji. I thought it might be appropriate to make a few observations at this time.
New Zealand has come a long ways since I first visited in the late '70's. It is still a vibrant beautiful place and it is well worth visiting.
It used to be an exceptionally inexpensive place to visit. That has changed. I used to get a 2 for 1 exchange on my US Dollar. The prices used to be about 1/2 to 1/3 what you'd pay in the USA, so the country was very inexpensive to visit. I took my children here TWICE and treated them to everything! Sadly, that would be very expensive today.
Sadder still, it seems crime and racial unrest are weaving their sinister ways into the country. Bike gangs, like American bike gangs are well into the manufacture and sale of crystal methamphetamine, or, as we call it in the States: Speed. For some reason their nickname for the drug is "P".
School violence was unheard of before. No longer, I'm afraid. Also violence towards police officers and corrections personnel. Just the other day the first prison guard to be killed on duty by an inmate occurred.
The Maori are increasingly unhappy with the way the government is treating them. Some have formed gangs of their own and are becoming "territorial". I fear they are learning a lot of bad things from American criminals. A want-to-be gang member attacked a 4 year old boy the other day. The reason: the boy was wearing a red shirt! Apparently this is the color that identifies members of a rival gang. Give me a break! A 4 year old boy??????????
These, of course are the exceptions. New Zealand remains as one of my very favorite places in the World.
I suppose she has lost a bit of the innocence I saw so many years ago.
Perhaps I was just a Pollyanna!