What a job ad that went viral reveals about New Zealand

The Country is generally considered a place where you can get away from it all, but that doesn't mean it's without its own rooted problems.

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Perhaps you would like to move to Saalfelden, Austria, and become a professional hermit. Or you could imagine quitting your desk job to become Japan's first full-time foreign ninja.

If any of these sounds like the escape genre you dream of, you might have been one of 1,383 people from 24 countries who applied to be a "Biodiversity Supervisor" for the Department of Conservation on New Zealand's remote west coast. Applications closed on Tuesday.

The position will be based in the township of Haast, which has a population of around 85, and involves working with New Zealand's endangered wildlife. endangered, such as a rare subrace of the southern brown kiwi; monitor fur seal populations; and working on the country's innovative and extensive predator control measures.

"Haast is an extremely special place to live, surrounded by mountains and ocean, with endless activities for an outdoor enthusiast,” the ad reads.

Even by New Zealand standards, which in the 1990s billed itself as "at the edge of the world", Haast is remote. The local school has only eight pupils. The nearest airport is three hours away, the nearest hospital is four. The town scores 1 out of 9 - the lowest possible score - on the Bortle Light Pollution Scale, putting it on par with the most uninhabited areas of Alaska, Utah and Wyoming.

Although New Zealand is generally considered to be very rural, this is not the case for most of its inhabitants. live in cities and towns, with about a third of the population in Auckland, the largest city.

Like everywhere else, living in remote areas like Haast, means accepting a life in relative isolation, with more limited access to services. The depletion of New Zealand's international tourism industry due to two years of pandemic border closures has made life in these townships even more difficult, however beautiful the scenery.

So when this position was originally advertised, only three people applied.

None had the required qualifications (an optional extra but "preferred" included full credentials for handling kiwi, the national bird), so the deadline was extended. New Zealand media Stuff then picked up the story - the job in heaven no one wanted - and it went viral internationally.

A subsequent interview with Wayne Costello, a regional spokesperson for the Ministry of Conservation, by Agence France-Presse was reprinted in media around the world, including Austria, Germany, Romania, United Arab Emirates , in South Africa and India, the ministry said.

Of the hundreds of applications from 24 different countries, including Finland, Paraguay and South Africa South, only a few dozen met the criteria and had the required work visa.

Unsurprisingly, a few things were lost in translation: O...