Record numbers of Kiwis moving overseas. A cost of living crisis. Rising unemployment.
The data paints a grim picture of life across the ditch. By many metrics, New Zealand has fallen into decline since the pandemic and, though there have been pockets of optimism, there is little sign of a recovery on the horizon.
Perhaps most telling is the number of citizens jumping ship - the biggest in the country's history.
In the year ended June 2025, almost 72,000 New Zealanders moved overseas, while just 25,400 moved home - a net loss of 46,500 Kiwis, according to Statistics New Zealand.
There was a net gain of non-citizens - 60,200 people - but even that number was slowing, down from 115,800 people the year before.
In total, the country added just 13,700 people to its population of 5.3 million.
It is a historically weak number that comes with economic risks - fewer workers and fewer consumers.
Professor Paul Spoonley, a sociologist at Massey University, said the number of Kiwis moving abroad was unprecedented.
"Every year for the last 30 years, we've seen more New Zealand citizens leave New Zealand than arrive, but it's really spiked in the last year," Prof Spoonley said.
"It really begins back in the 1970s with the OE - overseas experience - but particularly since 2000 we've seen this exodus, and we've seen two spikes.
"The first was at the end of the Global Financial Crisis and then the next is post-Covid."
In the 2011-2012 spike after the GFC, as many as 55,000 New Zealanders left the country per year, Prof Spoonley said.
"But at the moment the spike has reached over 70,000 New Zealand citizens leaving. That's very high."
In the past it was mostly Kiwis aged in their 20s who left, but now older people were heading overseas too.
"We've got two additional factors that are deeply concerning. The number of aged 30-plus New Zealanders leaving has risen, which suggests they're people who have not only got a qualification but have been in the New Zealand labour market.
"So we're losing people who have got skills and experience. And then the number of New Zealanders who are not born in New Zealand who are leaving has gone up considerably. So that suggests we're not retaining immigrants."
Most of the New Zealand citizens who emigrate - almost 60 per cent - head for Australia, where salaries are significantly higher, often by AUD $20,000 to $50,000.
And a large proportion of those Kiwis - 35 per cent last year - were not actually born in New Zealand, leading Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters to claim migrants are using the country as a "stepping stone into Australia".
The country's centre-right National government is trying to stem the flow. Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis recently announced new residency pathways in a bid to attract more workers. The visas for skilled migrants will be available from mid-2026.
'A very difficult recovery'
On a recent tour of Wellington, content creator Jake Vs The State captured boarded-up shopfronts, deserted malls and disillusioned locals.
Almost 200 businesses in the capital have closed in the past year, fuelled by 10,000 job cuts in the public sector, part of the government's aggressive cost-cutting.
"Tell me about it mate, I live in a tent," one man responded when asked about the cost of living crisis.
"I'm eating tuna out a can," a tradie replied while taking his lunch break in his van. "That's pretty sh** systems."
The tradie went on to explain that every time a new business opened in his area, it was closed six months later.
"Kill capitalism," was the verdict from another passerby. "I think we need to distribute the wealth a bit better".
GDP fell 0.9 per cent in the June 2025 quarter, raising the spectre of another recession if it shows a continued decline in Q3. It comes after the economy already experienced a recession last year.
Unemployment also rose to 5.2 per cent, up from 5.1 per cent in the previous quarter. And
food prices rose 5 per cent in the August 2025 year, driven mainly by dairy products.
In the New Zealand Herald's Mood of the Boardroom survey last month, chief executives ranked Prime Minister Christopher Luxon as the 16th best minister in his own cabinet.
And they ranked Ms Willis, who is also Finance Minister, 13th best.
In response to the results, Mr Luxon said the country was going through a "very difficult recovery" after the "disaster" of 2020.
New Zealand's grinding recovery - or lack thereof - can be partly attributed to its strict border closures from 2020, which cut off two engines of growth: tourism and migration, neither of which have returned to pre-pandemic levels.
Australia also closed borders, but reopened sooner, allowing tourism and migration to recover more quickly.
Prof Spoonley said economic conditions would need to improve to entice New Zealanders back home.
"The labour market needs to be more buoyant. There need to be salary and wage increases, which begin to retain people rather than losing them to Australia.
"We need a sense of optimism and a sense that people want to stay in New Zealand."