'Nerve-racking': First-time voters in Chch feel the pressure to decide

More young people are turning out to vote each election, but their numbers still lag far behind the country's older voters.

• This story was first published by RNZ

Thousands of first-time voters will soon be helping to decide New Zealand's future.

Young people RNZ spoke to in Christchurch were feeling the pressure.

"I feel like it's a surreal experience, it's like you're becoming an adult," one 18-year-old said.

"It's a nerve-racking first-time experience because you just dive straight into it, you don't really learn about it in school. And then you've got heaps of people trying to influence you to also vote for their party, so having to do your research is a bit overwhelming as well," another said.

"It's exciting because I missed the last election by just a little bit. It's something that I have to do, is the way I see it - it's like you can't not vote. Everyone who's told me that they're not voting, I have fought them," a student said.

The Electoral Commission's latest data suggested older people were paying more attention to the election than younger people.

As at 10 September, 36 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds who were eligible to vote had not yet enrolled.

That compared with about 14 percent of 25- to 29-year-olds yet to enrol, and 2 percent of 60- to 64-year-olds.

Some 18-year-old students at Te Aratai College in Christchurch gave an insight into why so many young people might be putting casting a vote in the too hard basket.

They felt politics was not really targeted at young people, with much of the debate and many of the policies aimed at much older people.

Some felt their issues were not seen as important enough, and that this was a barrier to engaging with the electoral process.

Student Milly Mussett said she wanted to see more young people engaged in the election.

"We've got friends that have just turned 18 and we talk about it, we'll be like: 'Are you going to vote?' and they're like: 'I don't know if I can be bothered', because again it's that research thing, you've got to look into the election... and they might not have that role model - like family members - who will openly talk about their knowledge, so they're like: 'I've got to do it by myself'," she said.

Mussett said young people were most tuned in to things that would impact them for many years, like climate change.