Auckland does have a drug problem and certain neighbourhoods adjacent to the CBD are not safe. Just like NYC Someone I know who is ultra street smart had his drink spiked in a pub in NZ and was robbed upon leaving the pub and beaten up when he resisted, some broken bones. Bottom line is the big cities in NZ are same as big cities world-wide (sadly -- they used to be safer) but rest of NZ is order of magnitude safer. I'm much more careful in AKL now than 10 years ago but at least the bad guys don't have guns generally, so it isn't like US yet.