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As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

nytimes.com

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Re: As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

#61

Post by bspn »

TheAlchemist wrote: post #52
bspn wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I too am considering a move to NZ for family reasons, and visited Auckland last month. It truly is a spectacular city framed by an amazing harbor, but it's not without some faults. My thoughts on the cons you raise based on conversations I had with a few locals: > housing prices are extremely high. I don't understand that, there is plenty of space everywhere (maybe except Wellington) and somehow they manage to not us…

We didn't looked at Christchurch - we assumed that as most people live in the northern island, we will probably end up here, so we preferred to spend full time there. For food, it seems like for the food problem it's also caused by the lack of 'culinary education' as we may call it in France. Children are eating bad food very early and those habits stick for life. We too have kids, and it looks like an amazing place…

With respect to kids, one thing that surprised me was that almost everyone I spoke to lived within walking distance of their kids' school and were more than happy to let their kids find their own way to and from school unsupervised! I don't know whether they were just trolling me, but it seems like a lot of the fears we have here in the US don't exist so much in NZ.

Re: As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

#62

Post by justinclift »

bspn wrote: post #57
justinclift wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I was regularly getting 50-100 down Which units of measurement? :)

Ha, so true - fortunately in this case it was mbps. People were talking about government plans for gigabit speeds, but then warned me not to hold me breath waiting.

Cool, that's workable speed. :)

Re: As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

#63

Post by justinclift »

bspn wrote: post #61
TheAlchemist wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We didn't looked at Christchurch - we assumed that as most people live in the northern island, we will probably end up here, so we preferred to spend full time there. For food, it seems like for the food problem it's also caused by the lack of 'culinary education' as we may call it in France. Children are eating bad food very early and those habits stick for life. We too have kids, and it looks like an amazing place…

With respect to kids, one thing that surprised me was that almost everyone I spoke to lived within walking distance of their kids' school and were more than happy to let their kids find their own way to and from school unsupervised! I don't know whether they were just trolling me, but it seems like a lot of the fears we have here in the US don't exist so much in NZ.

Kids walking to school by themselves (once old enough to have decent judgement/not get lost :>) isn't at all unusual in towns in Australia either.

Re: As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

#64

Post by Applejinx »

bspn wrote: post #28
TheAlchemist wrote: post #13

That's interesting ! I'm intending to make a move with my family in near future, and we actually went to visit the northern island for 15 days last month. The country is really beautiful, and there are not a lot of people around, so you can't help but feel blessed by the surrounding nature. The people are great, probably the nicest I've ever seen (as a whole). I've noted some cons though (not blocking for us thankful…

I too am considering a move to NZ for family reasons, and visited Auckland last month. It truly is a spectacular city framed by an amazing harbor, but it's not without some faults. My thoughts on the cons you raise based on conversations I had with a few locals: > housing prices are extremely high. I don't understand that, there is plenty of space everywhere (maybe except Wellington) and somehow they manage to not us…

> housing prices are extremely high. I don't understand that, there is plenty of space everywhere (maybe except Wellington) and somehow they manage to not use this advantage..

Call it an experiment in whether they can build a country around American tech billionaires. I would wonder whether the prices of things reflect that, and whether it's different if you're a native (or whether there's some other mechanism at work: in Vermont, I pay less for housing because I'm able to declare my home as a homestead. If I was an out-of-stater keeping a summer house in Vermont I'd be paying a different rate.)

It will be interesting to see how New Zealand deals with its influx of hyper-wealthy. That will probably continue until we invent the intercontinental ballistic pitchfork ;)

Re: As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

#65

Post by TheAlchemist »

bspn wrote: post #61
TheAlchemist wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We didn't looked at Christchurch - we assumed that as most people live in the northern island, we will probably end up here, so we preferred to spend full time there. For food, it seems like for the food problem it's also caused by the lack of 'culinary education' as we may call it in France. Children are eating bad food very early and those habits stick for life. We too have kids, and it looks like an amazing place…

With respect to kids, one thing that surprised me was that almost everyone I spoke to lived within walking distance of their kids' school and were more than happy to let their kids find their own way to and from school unsupervised! I don't know whether they were just trolling me, but it seems like a lot of the fears we have here in the US don't exist so much in NZ.

I actually noticed to opposite in some parts of the country - a school bus doing what appeared to be a 20km tour in the countryside :)

But yeah, totally agree on the fears - kids have a lot of freedom there. On the other hand, I believe US is an outlier here too - it's quite frequent in Europe to let kids get back home alone.

Re: As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

#66

Post by nkrisc »

TheAlchemist wrote: post #52
bspn wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I too am considering a move to NZ for family reasons, and visited Auckland last month. It truly is a spectacular city framed by an amazing harbor, but it's not without some faults. My thoughts on the cons you raise based on conversations I had with a few locals: > housing prices are extremely high. I don't understand that, there is plenty of space everywhere (maybe except Wellington) and somehow they manage to not us…

We didn't looked at Christchurch - we assumed that as most people live in the northern island, we will probably end up here, so we preferred to spend full time there. For food, it seems like for the food problem it's also caused by the lack of 'culinary education' as we may call it in France. Children are eating bad food very early and those habits stick for life. We too have kids, and it looks like an amazing place…

Your thoughts on culture/history are interesting considering the islands have been inhabited in some fashion for around 800 years at least.

Re: As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

#67

Post by agentile »

A while back I was going through the immigration process for NZ with an immigration lawyer and had all the points necessary and was moving on to the interview phase.

My wife and I ultimately decided to stop as she became pregnant and didn't want to be as far away from family. That and the flight/quarantine times that would be imposed for our dogs. Another big issue was taxes.

To my knowledge NZ and USA are two countries that will try to tax you wherever you live until you die unless you renounce citizenship. So dealing with being double taxed on income from NZ and USA was a big deal as well.

Whenever I read these articles, it does sound so appealing. My sister has lived there for many years and the quality of life just seems so much better.

Re: As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

#69

Post by anentropic »

justinclift wrote: post #60
HXFIVE wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

75% of the population will have access to fibre at gigabit speeds by 2019 [1]. Coverage will increase to 84% by 2024. Not sure about latencies off the top of my head, but there are several new international cables under construction [2] which will help which accessing sites hosted overseas. [1] https://www.crownfibre.govt.nz/ [2] http://www.hawaikicable.co.nz/

That nice for 2019. How about atm though? :)

it's fine if you're in an urban area

Re: As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

#70

Post by rconti »

humanrebar wrote: post #3

> For all sorts of reasons, New Zealand suddenly makes sense. The cost of living is less than in San Francisco. Commuting is less wearying. And American politics, “Brexit” and the Islamic State are on the other side of the world. For the most part, this is all true in, say, Tulsa. Especially if you stay off Facebook. You especially don't have to go to New Zealand to find a cheaper, commuter-friendly place to work. No…

Plus, you'd be further from Peter Thiel.
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