Any New Zealand owners here?

[luckydude]

I'll avoid discussing politics but if things go wrong, we might be looking to leave the country. Exploring the idea of New Zealand and wanting to talk to people who are there. Obviously, my 228 would come with, seems perfect for local waters. Be a bummer to not get salmon but yellowtail and bluefin seem like a pretty sweet trade.

Local people who I've talked to about going out together, I'm just exploring, not going anywhere right now, just looking at options.

 

[Summertop511]

politics aside I would like to live there regardless!

 

[Bloodweiser]

I sold my 70 charger rt/se 440 spd to a bloke in NZ: yes beautiful to live think carefully .

 

[wrxhoon]

I'll avoid discussing politics but if things go wrong, we might be looking to leave the country. Exploring the idea of New Zealand and wanting to talk to people who are there. Obviously, my 228 would come with, seems perfect for local waters. Be a bummer to not get salmon but yellowtail and bluefin seem like a pretty sweet trade.

Local people who I've talked to about going out together, I'm just exploring, not going anywhere right now, just looking at options.

Not in NZ but I have fished there several times . Plenty of huge kingfish there ( some over 80 lb but 40-50 lb is normal daily catch). To give an idea of size fish under 30" are not legal ( measurement from the fork to head not end of tail like we measure here ). There are blue fin and yellow fin but we have plenty here as well .
Kiwis prefer aluminum boats but the 228 is perfect there.
NZ is a beautiful country, not as busy as Cal, about the same climate depending on where you are and they get earthquakes there just like you get in Cal. Only 12 flight from San Fran to Auckland and you $ buys $1.53 NZ.

 

[luckydude]

I sold my 70 charger rt/se 440 spd to a bloke in NZ: yes beautiful to live think carefully .

I think I am thinking carefully but you guys are beyond useful in second guessing stuff. Anyone who is a captain is careful. So second guess me please.

This is way off topic, if the people who run this site say this was not cool, I will never discuss this stuff again. I want to be a good member of this site, I love this site, you guys are not the THT jerks, quite the opposite.

I'm worried about our election but I'm also worried about a lot of stuff. Our police (where I am but it seems to be a thing elsewhere) beat people up and kill people and get away with it. I was talking to my wife about that and she said "I'm sure New Zealand has the same problems". That's the problem right there, what she sees is normal for her, cops killing people is just a thing. It should not be a thing, we should not be accepting of that. And I when I showed her the data, she got it, we are really bad.

The reason I'm looking at New Zealand is a bunch of stuff. I think America is screwed, I went to the Hackers conference, I'm 100% sure that none of you know what that is, it is not the black hats thing in Vegas, it is 35 years old, it is invite only, no press, no talking about it. It's where smart people get to talk about stuff and not get judged. I won't do the details because that is not cool, but Russia has used Facebook to nudge us towards our most shitty instincts. Which divide us. They are really good at it, smart people are looking at it, trying to fix it, there is no fix other than taking all social media away. Social media with a bad actor like Russia is crazy effective. Ask yourself, can you as a conservative or a liberal have a conservation where you talk about the issues and have it not be awful, have it be like what we do here, engineer around a problem? I can't.

Here is my concern. I don't think America is a good future for my kids. My kids are who I care about. I want to figure out a life for them where they can get a job, raise a family, be OK. You guys don't really know me, I was a rock star in tech, not a big one but big enough that I retired at 54. My kids are not me. They are just kids, they are fine but not rock stars. They are not on a path to buy their own Grady, they will struggle to buy a house.

I used to be hopeful that we could turn things around in this country, WWII showed us at our best, didn't matter what you thought about politics in a foxhole, you leaned on your buddy, they leaned on you. We are a long way from that, we are polarized, we don't pay our kids enough to live, it used to be possible to work a minimum wage and pay for college, the colleges that my kids want to go to are ~$65K/year. We don't pay teachers enough and yet they spend money on supplies for their students.

Sorry for the rant and if the good people that run this site want me to never talk about this again, I get it and am fine with it.

 

[Summertop511]

There is no perfect answer for 100% of the population. What makes it great is you are free to say what you want and not get hanged for it. If you want to move you go a great boat for NZ.

 

[leeccoll]

My father served in WWII, he was a Sargent in army and served most of his time in Italy in the "Mussolini Trench".

I have spent my adult life traveling to remote places, flown over 3 million miles starting with Pan Am.

I have lived a mostly privileged life by most standards by grace of God and my father's foundation.

My father was the most moral person I ever met. He was very conservative, and I remember him giving me a lecture one day saying that it is the duty of all Americans to pay their fair share of taxes.

Having acknowledged my father and myself spent much time all over the world I would say that America is still the best place in the world for me all things considered. I was supposed to be in Thailand as of last Friday. Not possible because of Covid, but that's okay.

I could retire in Africa, Brazil, Burma, Sri-Lanka or Thailand because of my time spent in those places, but I will stay in the good old USA because my perspective traveling OUTSIDE the US has given me a different insight.

No, I am no smarter than the average bear, but I have come to a deeper understanding of how powerful and great our Nation really is, albeit as Summertop said not perfect. Nowhere I have been is.

Divided as our nation is, I still believe in it's core. We will overcome as always. And for those whom feel differently, that's fine the world is yours to explore too.

 

[wrxhoon]

Well said Lee, only one thing I don't agree with . Australia is the best place to live on and USA second best . Of course I'm biased but that's what I believe and I have traveled a lot as well . Nothing wrong with NZ or Canada, good salmon fishing there but bloody cold.

 

[Doc Stressor]

It's pretty amazing that we can have this type of conversation here without it going off the rails.

As a former academic, I've done a lot of international traveling as well. I spent a month in New Zealand and was totally blown away by the place and its people. My wife and I seriously thought about retiring there about 15 years ago. We went as far as getting on the immigration list. That was an interesting experience since the qualifications for immigration changed every few months depending on the employment needs of the country at the time. Like most countries, you can buy your way in as an investor or by starting a business.

We also thought about emigrating to Canada. We spent a sabbatical year working at a biotech company in Victoria on Vancouver Island after working with that company for several years. It was the best place we have ever lived in. We were there during the Clinton impeachment. Our Canadian friends just could not understand why we were tearing or country apart over something as silly as sex. The contrast between what we saw on the Seattle TV stations and the Canadian channels was remarkable. Whenever we got sick of watching turmoil, lies, and violence on the US news, we would switch to a local station and learn about kids getting awards for good school performance the latest local festival, concerts, and cultural events. It still feels very much like home when we go back to visit Vancouver Island.

The issue of feeling like home is a big one. We all develop a sense of place and it keeps most of us from moving elsewhere. There are of course issues of leaving friends and family. That's what ultimately kept us in the US. Along with a sense of responsibility, which is probably misguided, that we should stay here and try to make things better for future generations.

I've never made it to OZ. My father always talked about moving there someday after spending time there during WWII. I've known quite a few Australians over the years. They seemed to be more like Americans than the Kiwis. They were not politically correct to the extreme, drank a lot, and when we were younger, spent most of their time chasing birds. Not the ones with wings. They were a lot of fun. I hope to get there someday and catch a barramundi before I croak. That's one of the only two fish left on my bucket list.

 

[luckydude]

It's pretty amazing that we can have this type of conversation here without it going off the rails.

As a former academic, I've done a lot of international traveling as well. I spent a month in New Zealand and was totally blown away by the place and its people. My wife and I seriously thought about retiring there about 15 years ago. We went as far as getting on the immigration list. That was an interesting experience since the qualifications for immigration changed every few months depending on the employment needs of the country at the time. Like most countries, you can buy your way in as an investor or by starting a business.

We also thought about emigrating to Canada. We spent a sabbatical year working at a biotech company in Victoria on Vancouver Island after working with that company for several years. It was the best place we have ever lived in.

Amen to your first sentence. I'm on a mailing list in the Santa Cruz mountains, covers the 95033 zipcode, and they would have shut down this immediately, it's why I was hesitant to bring it up, I'm still new here and learning what is OK and what is not.

And thanks to people being reasonable, thinking, adults, it seems like we can have this conversation without it going off the rails. I agree, it is amazing, kudos to all of you. This site is special, lets keep it that way.

It's funny you mentioned Victoria. About 15 years ago, when I was running a tech company, we explored moving the company to a better location. We considered quality of life (basically, can you get outdoors and have fun, is there some culture, interesting shops/bars/eats), housing cost, schools (we mostly had kids), cost of living, population of tech people, population of non-straight people (I stumbled on some research that said places that had non-straight people that were accepted tended to be better across the board. Who knew?), etc.

The list of places we ended up looking at hard was:

- Bay Area
- Bend, OR
- Seattle
- Victoria
- Boulder
- Madison, WI (I'm from there)
- Hudson Valley, NY

In the end, when you take all that stuff together, the Bay Area wasn't that bad. Every place has positives and negatives.

Doc, gonna PM you, would be interesting to chat live a bit.

 

[Doc Stressor]

I replied to you PM.

 

[leeccoll]

Well said Lee, only one thing I don't agree with . Australia is the best place to live on and USA second best . Of course I'm biased but that's what I believe and I have traveled a lot as well . Nothing wrong with NZ or Canada, good salmon fishing there but bloody cold.

Jerry,
Is that an open invitation for a future visit so you can show me the finer points of Australia???
Oddly enough, I was supposed to visit a good friend in Auckland this past March, but cancelled the trip because of what's going on.
So I am due there are soon as it is safe.
Stay healthy~
PS-Yes I understand it is not in Australia

 

[Blaugrana]

Definitely enjoyed reading this thread and the various perspectives everyone has.

Having lived abroad for a couple of years in London and then another 2 years in Madrid, "Home" really is whatever place pulls you strongly in that direction. You can say it is where family is or where you want to raise your family, but I think it is all about what cycle in life you are in and that defines what "home" is for you in that moment.

My daughter was born in Madrid and if I could have had it my way, I would probably still be living there. I cannot imagine a country having a better quality of life than what I experienced in Spain. Delicious food at incredible prices, nobody rushing you out of the restaurants/ cafes, great pay and benefits as an exPat, etc. For the first time in my career, I actually got to know my co-workers outside of work, met their families, and did barbecues together. The pace of life there was much slower and limited the amount of stress you could actually encounter unlike here in the US. There is nothing like taking breaks out of your work day multiple times for a "cortado" and sitting down for a "menu del dia".

What brought us back here? Family. My wife wanted to raise our daughter around loved ones. I sacrificed income to start my career over and return to the US, but based on the cycle I was in, it was a no brainer. If this was a few years prior, I'm not sure I would have dropped everything to reset my life.

Now for LuckyDude, I would not blindly just pick up and go somewhere else to start your life again. It is not easy getting situated in a foreign country and calling it home. Through work, I had a relocation agency help me find a place and lawyers got me established as a resident in both countries. The laws were very confusing and I don't understand how some people are able to navigate them to start a new life abroad.

Best of luck wherever you decide, but I enjoy living here in the US even with everything going on. Unfortunately, this pandemic ruined my annual trip to Spain, but at least my Grady is giving me that opportunity to disconnect from everyday life.

 

[wrxhoon]

Jerry,
Is that an open invitation for a future visit so you can show me the finer points of Australia???
Oddly enough, I was supposed to visit a good friend in Auckland this past March, but cancelled the trip because of what's going on.
So I am due there are soon as it is safe.
Stay healthy~
PS-Yes I understand it is not in Australia

Open invitation? Sure is, you are welcome here anytime, I can even take you fishing in the Grady, you can see how she handles the mostly rough Pacific. We welcome all Americans here, plenty make the long trip down under, at least it is a none stop flight from LA, San Fran and even Dallas. New Zealand is very nice too, very similar to Tasmania ( island state south of mainland).
I love holidaying in North America, especially west coast as far north as Alaska but only in your summer, I can't stand your cold winters. I find Americans very friendly especially to Australians, as a bonus we speak the same language, well almost!

Doc, you should make the long trip down under and chase some Barra in the northern Territory, they are very tasty fish as well but the wild ones not farmed. A bit like king salmon, fantastic wild, only average farmed. As for birds in my younger days I was the same chasing birds and waves in the surf. Those days are long gone of course but the memories remain.

Of course no traveling abroad for any of us right now but hopefully things will change soon.

 

[trapper]

So many members with such varied and interesting life history, willing to share with us all. A big thank you!

 

[Capt Tom]

Everyone is welcome to leave, round up as many as you can and go somewhere else where the police won't beat you up or worse.

 

[Doc Stressor]

Here we go. It was just a matter of time before this sort of stuff starts up.

Can't have a civil conversation anywhere online.

 

[leeccoll]

Open invitation? Sure is, you are welcome here anytime, I can even take you fishing in the Grady, you can see how she handles the mostly rough Pacific. We welcome all Americans here, plenty make the long trip down under, at least it is a none stop flight from LA, San Fran and even Dallas. New Zealand is very nice too, very similar to Tasmania ( island state south of mainland).
I love holidaying in North America, especially west coast as far north as Alaska but only in your summer, I can't stand your cold winters. I find Americans very friendly especially to Australians, as a bonus we speak the same language, well almost!

Doc, you should make the long trip down under and chase some Barra in the northern Territory, they are very tasty fish as well but the wild ones not farmed. A bit like king salmon, fantastic wild, only average farmed. As for birds in my younger days I was the same chasing birds and waves in the surf. Those days are long gone of course but the memories remain.

Of course no traveling abroad for any of us right now but hopefully things will change soon.

That is very gracious of you. Hope to take you up on it someday my friend.

 

[leeccoll]

Here we go. It was just a matter of time before this sort of stuff starts up.

Can't have a civil conversation anywhere online.

Yep, bummer.

 

[Bloodweiser]

Oh that wasn’t so bad .