{"id":43580,"date":"2022-04-16T05:00:43","date_gmt":"2022-04-15T20:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2022\/apr\/16\/as-new-zealand-emerges-from-pandemic-isolation-citizens-queue-up-to-leave"},"modified":"2022-04-16T05:00:43","modified_gmt":"2022-04-15T20:00:43","slug":"as-new-zealand-emerges-from-pandemic-isolation-citizens-queue-up-to-leave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=43580","title":{"rendered":"As New Zealand emerges from pandemic isolation, citizens queue up to leave"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Surging living costs, low wages and the claustrophobia of two years behind closed borders have many seeking a fresh start elsewhere<\/p>\n<p>Alie Benge, a writer, and David Coffey, a mental health worker, were browsing apartment listings in Barcelona and dreaming of a getaway when it hit them. The couple, both 33, had been planning an overseas trip for some time. When they looked at long term accommodation, they realised it was more affordable than what they were paying for shared flats in Wellington \u2013 a city with a reputation for chilly, ageing housing stock and soaring rents.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were looking at places to stay on Airbnb \u2013 this is in Barcelona \u2013 and it\u2019s cheaper than what I would pay here in Wellington,\u201d David says. If they were paying so much, why not do so in one of the world\u2019s biggest cities?<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2022\/apr\/16\/as-new-zealand-emerges-from-pandemic-isolation-citizens-queue-up-to-leave\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Surging living costs, low wages and the claustrophobia of two years behind closed borders have many seeking a fresh start elsewhereAlie Benge, a writer, and David Coffey, a mental health worker, were browsing apartment listings in Barcelona and dreamin&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2163,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[41,1066,56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-coronavirus","category-new-zealand"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2163"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43580"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43581,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43580\/revisions\/43581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}