Comment by dzhiurgis | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dzhiurgis | Hacker News Reader

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Not far north of Auckland - Tawharanui peninsula, Mangawhai, etc. On a large rural mansion (preferably with ocean view). All easily achievable with about $1m USD (interest rates are great atm to). The thing to watch out is "rates" aka taxes and maintenance (ocean water does etch a bit). Downside is NZ is quite boring from cultural perspective (but super fun for boating, fishing, hunting, etc - I think most city dwellers don't realise how much of it's here). The other problem is visiting family in Europe means it's nearly 10k a year for business flights. Plus winters here aren't particularly pleasant either. I'd rather be in northern hemisphere for longer days mainly.

Right now we're a in a similar situation, albeit renting sharing with flatmates. Auckland/Airport is just 20-60 minutes away if need to. Marina is just 15 minutes away. Internet is not excellent but 60mbps VDSL is enough. Maybe 5G will change that.

On longer term - offshore cruising. I recon there might be a boom of that once Starlink constellation is operational and finally sat net is affordable for smaller boats. Big decision here is whether it's catamaran (2.5x living area, 3x cost, 2x speed, 2x maintenance, 2x comfort) or monohull (2x safety, 1.5x versatility).

Japan is out there too. They've recently announced visa programme for startups so immigration options might be more feasible. That said I've got spoiled by rural living and Japan is incredibly dense so no idea how big of a house I could find there. Also I'd move far north as summers in Tokyo etc seem unbearable.

I currently live in Kaiwaka not far from Mangawhai and have since Symantec bought out Ghost in '98, as that helped me afford a first house. It's a wonderful place to live. I did a lot remotely back then and once Symantec closed in NZ a decade ago I've been 100% remote from home ever since.

While I don't have an ocean view, and only about 2ha of land, it's a wonderful place to be. However, there are pretty significant drawbacks in getting gigs as there just aren't many local firms doing anything at all intellectually challenging and US firms still just apparently aren't interested in talent in this country who don't want to suffer being forced to relocate to awful places to live.

I don't see that changing, either; the fact is that people who really place proper value on a quality lifestyle tend to be older, and few firms really place much value on older talent either. Younger people are cheaper and more willing to suffer abuses such as moving to unpleasant, expensive metro areas in countries with alien values.

nice, I'd quite like to work remote in a similar location . Currently on the edge of Auckland (Henderson Valley area). I'm hoping with this lockdown more firms are going to be way more open to remote work. Current workplace didn't consider it an option pre lockdown, but might be more open to it now as working remotely has gone pretty well for us (other than the manufacturing side of things).

If I'm in NZ can I come visit? Looks lovely. How's the cheese shop?

Anyone from HN who wants to can drop by on the way to a more traditional tourist spot like Mangawhai or further north (although over summer I'm often away at the weekends racing stockcars). The phone number for the library redirects to our house if it's not open.

The cheese shop is fine! I know Keith and Marita who have owned it for many years, they are good people - Ad Clarijs who founded it still occasionally runs cheesemaking classes, his place is not far from mine. Also worth a visit is the amazing Cafe Eutopia next door - https://g.page/eutopiacafe?share - which is a marvel.

It just boggles my mind how US firms don't realise how poor a value proposition - especially to people of an age to have a family or strong community ties, like the roots I have here - they offer to developers in AU/NZ when demanding that people relocate to work for them, and I'm not really optimistic that COVID-19 will really bring any significant change to their corporate cultures. I am hopeful that perhaps more firms in AU may cotton on to the fact that there's a substantial pool of exceptional veteran talent in NZ who are really underutilized, which really represents an opportunity for them if they were to make a serious attempt to hire here and let people work remotely.

I'm in Tauranga -- I have gigabit fibre, reasonable taxes, an amazing Prime Minister and a 3-5 hour time difference with Silicon Valley depending on the season. I am fortunate enough to have a remote job for a distributed company but I hope one of the few plusses to come out of the current state of the world is the tech industry taking its blinders off, finally, to remote/distributed work.

Dumb question, but how does the time difference to Silicon Valley vary with the seasons? They are a fixed distance apart.

They are, but daylight saving time means that from April to October the time difference is 5 hours (NZT: +12, PDT: -7) and otherwise it's 3 hours (NZDT +13, PST -8). With a few weeks of a 4 hour difference at the edges since the daylight saving boundaries don't precisely align.

Aaah that cheese shop. I've stop there briefly this summer, on way to Waipu. Finally got to taste cultured butter for the first time (unimpressed).

Utopia cafe looked dystopian as it was closed :D

We employ remote workers globally and are over represented by New Zealand and to a lesser extent Australia, I think for this very reason.

I'm in North Shore, which has fibre (100 mbps down, 20 mbps up). 5G is also good. There are cultural activities, but those are mostly in the city.

As a young, unmarried guy, there's no need for me to get a mansion. The homestay family I live with have taught me so much about living with young children, it's been a blessing to learn whether that's a challenge I'd like to take on.

Most people who want to make lots of money moved to Australia, so those left in NZ usually care about more important things in life.

I also have high hopes for Starlink, not just for NZ (we have enough submarine cables) but for other countries e.g. Zambia, Georgia.

I'm from nz as well, I wouldn't get your hopes up for 5g. We have too many trees for 5g, its only really planned in malls, airports, universities ect. Large indoor areas.

I think the bigger issue is oligopoly of cell providers. Puzzler how (reasonably) well Chorus operates, yet cell providers has big money to shelve for licences which is hard for polichickens to say no to.

The new 5G plans are pretty much same as 4G - it's not realistic alternative for broadband. Meanwhile in most Eastern European countries you can get truly unlimited data plan for less than $100 (we've got one for a 100 boat + 8 cameras marina).

Nice. If things really do go reliably in the direction of distributed-first, I'd love to move to Central Otago - where my heart has been since I was a child. I'd love to give my daughter the chance to grow up in Hawea, Bannockburn, or Earnscleugh.

I'd give serious consideration to the Mackenzie Country too - Ruataniwha, Pukaki, and Tekapo are all amazing places.

I live in the main part of Auckland, easy 20 minute bus ride to the Centre of town and Gigabit Fibre for Internet..

What specially you miss when you say "NZ is quite boring from cultural perspective" ?

For me Auckland is about the minimum size (1.5m people) I'd want to live. I have a minority hobby (chess) that barely exists in smaller cities, let alone towns. Similarly as you go to smaller places you lose those other niche things that need a huge population to support. For example outside of Auckland/Wellington most towns have perhaps one Tech meetup group, not one for every topic.

The outdoor stuff is an occasional for me. Living in the Auckland I can get to it in an hour or two dring while having two good bakeries in walking distance for my house.

Well I don't go out much nowadays, especially with newborn. But even then it's festivals and raves are too chill.

People are a bit simple. You'll rarely have discussion on politics, economy or philosophy. I suppose there's a reason - so many here can enjoy sailing, fishing, hiking, golf and much more than us in Northern Europe - things that are sort of luxury. We were bound to stay in deep dark cellars, listening to weird electronic music and eating pills like pacman.

Also housing supplies are a bit ridiculous. Laundry is good example - cold water, horizontal tub that at most gets rid of smell, but not stains. Also what's up with those stainless laundry sinks that every damn house has to have it? Right now we live on a property that's valued over $3m but we ain't got a damn heat pump...

Dude, (Dudette?) your thoughts are very similar to mine. The world is a big place with a lot of possibilities and this is totally possible. DM me.

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