Hello from Canberra, Australia

Howdy,

I am living in Canberra for the past couple years and thinking of moving to New Zealand in 2014.

We are Americans and our kids were born here. I am retiring from the military and we are kind of thinking we don't want to go back to America, but we aren't sure that Australia is for us either.

Can anyone recommend some good rural areas to consider in New Zealand where we could buy 40 plus acres to farm reasonably?

How is crime in New Zealand? Cost of living? Jobs?

What would be a good occupation? In the military I am a hazmat guy.

thanks again,

Muskox.

I can't help you with much of that stuff But can recommend NZ as a place to live and welcome to the forum!

Gidday mate, where in the states are you from? You must have been in Aussie for a while - I never heard anyone from your side of the world call their country 'America'. Seems to be a southern hemasphere thing!! There are a few canucks on here, possibly some yanks too. NZ is an awesome place to live. As for crime - pretty laid back (in terms of big crime). Some areas are worse than others, just like in any country. But, correct me if I am wrong kiwis, I think Aramoana was really the only big shooting we've had here? A few gross murders here and there (Bain trial etc) but nothing much if you aren't scared of a measley weird knitted wollen jersey.....

:)

Welcome.

Dannevirke bro sweet as,buy here and work in the agg chemicle bizz .We have just started using cars to get around in so were super advanced!!!!.Come to nz mate were all good bugger's over here except the bad one's but we outnumber them like 100,000 to 1 im sure.what ever you do dont move to................................................ ........................ponsonby! 40 acres there will cost you the price of buying Dannevirke! good luck and see you soon:D.

Dannevirke has a sweet KFC

Its improving.........now they fuck up the order by giving you to much so we let them think they are doing ok now

The chicken is best I have tried.

yea.......that fuckn profile pics weirds me out wtf!!

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Originally Posted by Neckshot

yea.......that fuckn profile pics weirds me out wtf!!

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I'll change it for you

lol.........worse ya nut bag

My MS paint skills need a touch up!

The big eyed face was more danniverkeish

scary as ve seen that guy somewere???? somewere up in hastings from memory!!

Your relying on your memory ?

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahah

If you like fishing and hunting western bay of plenty eastern waikato coromandle area would be a good place to start looking close to the sea and rotorua lakes for trout with plenty of areas to hunt with in a hours drive. the closer to Tauranga you get land prices get silly but it is a good centre to base out of. if you made a triangle from Waihi to Te puke down to Taupo you should find a reasonable priced piece of land and still be close to a major centre. crime is not to bad really for the size of the place in fact in some places crime is on the decline we currently correct me if i am wrong we have a national employment rate around 14% which is one of the highest we have had for a while. as for employment there is plenty of competion and the higher skilled and experenced does not guarantee employment. agriculture is big business here with many industies supplying good services to the white gold producers and kiwi fruit industry.

Welcome to the forum Muskox. Our country is beautiful and it is quite diverse so my suggestion would be that you travel around and get the feel for it and then choose an area that you like. The comments thus far have predominantly been from North Islanders (the SI guys must be out hunting) but don't disregard that southern island as here are some good spots down there as well. As to properties that you can buy there is always my place.

'As to properties that you can buy there is always my place'......jeese Rushy, dont scare him off.......

welcome Muskox, as Rushy said, come over and have a look around.......you wont be disappointed

We're full down here Rushy.

How much land are you looking at Muskox? And welcome.

40 acres and a house would be a good start, especially if something backed up against some crown bush.

3 years in OZ, 3 in Spain, 3 in Itay, 1 in Turkey 2 in Afghanistan, 1 in Djibouti. Haven't lived in Merica in a long time.

Sorry south Island would be tops, don't need to be around a population center. Prefer not to.

Would be nice to live someplace where I could run chamois and tahr on the weekends.

North Island would be fine as well, but we'd want Sambar and Rusa in the neighborhood.

north to south is only a hop skip and jump away.... or a cheap air far.

Lots of great places in both Islands..... fishing & hunting is never that far away :D

Sounds like you should be looking around Fairlie, Tekapo (expensive), Twizel. But plots of land that size are hard to find around there.

Thanks, I looked at some real estate websites. There are some nice ones there. Finding a house with big enough land is the tough part.

We are going to come over in August and take a look around. Wife is a school teacher, and worst case scenario I can go back to school if need be.

never enough school teacher's over here bro! good luck, you must like hunting???

theres a couple of crown bushes i wouldnt mind backing up to me.................out loud again im bad at that!!:thumbsup:helen clark aint one of them either rushy.

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Originally Posted by Neckshot

!:thumbsup:helen clark aint one of them either rushy.

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With you on that one Neckshot, she is more man than I am

No I love hunting.

Problem with anyplace good in the states is that you are so limited to how much you can hunt in a year.

Alaska and Texas you are only limited by your checkbook.

We might move back to Alaska, who knows. We have talked about NZ a lot, wife is nuts about it as she doesn't want to move back to America and I have heard the fishing is great and the hunting can be.

Australia wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the Australians.

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Originally Posted by Muskox

Australia wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the Australians.

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Wins comment of the year!

What happens when you build a nation out of convicts.

Is there such a thing as customer service in New Zealand?

We love Australia, except the politics (Ranga C-word is out of control, kind of like a genetically defected female version of O'Bama) (understanding that redheads are genetically defected, and I have been married to two of them).

The roads were made by blind people who never measured the width of car.

The parking spots were made by blind people who never measured the width of a car as well.

It's not a gun friendly place, and every year they lose rights.

Hell it's not a friendly place if your a Christian Conservative, as the left can say whatever they want about you and if you ever say anything about them you'll go to jail.

Expensive, but pay is good. We live in the 2nd most expensive city in Australia and top 10 in the world, so it cost more than we want to afford.

Birds and wildlife are nice, I think if you can keep from getting killed on public land that the Sambar situation is about as good as it gets. A lot of idiots with guns running the bush, and the gov doesn't want anything to do with any kind of feral wildlife management.

Quality of food is good, chef's are lacking.

Taxes are astonishing. Wife's paycheck was 38% tax.

Hooliganism is a bit out of control, but they don't seem to bother my wife and kids. Lots of immigrants from less desirable places that do hassle the wife though, especially when she goes shopping without me.

there was a deer farm for sale in pyes pa large house impelment shed etc breeding samba or rusa about 40Ha i think. half way between Tauranga and rotorua crown land at the back of the property with fallow or reds. with fallow only 15mins down the road at Otawa reserve anyway

Edit: found the farm i was thinking of. http://www.crockfordrealestate.co.nz...road/?pid=9443 there is a two primary schools with in 10min drive if teaching is an option

Thanks Mate (do Kiwis use Mate?).

A friend of mine in defence channels here in Australia is a NZDF Warrant Officer, he claims South Islanders use "fella", then in the next breath he calls me mate.

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Originally Posted by Muskox

Thanks Mate (do Kiwis use Mate?).

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Nah. It's Dave now :D

we use mate heaps then there is the (yeah nah) statement takes a kiwi to agree and disagree with them selves in one breath

Hey mate , welcome to this site. Good to have ya !! New Zealand is the best place to live , South Island , South Canterbury !!

Geraldine might be the spot for you Muskox. I think there is some smaller holdings around there, handy to a few schools and not to far away from them goat things. All that and it is a nice spot anyway.

-The convicts you speak of, mostly died in ww1 and ww2 - now there's just a multicultural toilet of BS and PC.
-The customer service is 10 times worse here in NZ than Aus.
-Nobody voted for Julia Gillard and that bitch is history in the next election.
-The roads there look like Autobahns compared to the home made race track roads we have here in NZ
-The parking spaces are 20% more tight arse here in NZ. Fact. Look at all the dents on ALL the cars here. These happen in shopping centres.
-Agree with the 'not a gun friendly place one'. Blame Mr Martyn Bryant for that.
-Yes its expensive but hey you get far better free health care there than here. If your mrs gets breast cancer here in NZ its a death sentance - In the 'land of convicts' you get the right drugs because the government is keen to keep you paying those lovely high taxes.
-You lose any interesting natural wildlife coming here, but the difference in that you're welcome to hunt almost every kind of ferral animal.
-The food here is OK, Like in Aussie you just need time to find the better places. The seafood is awesome, you just gotta go get it yourself 'cause the prices at the markets are nothing short of rape.
-Yep the taxes are shitty in Australia. You need to pay for all those baby boomers that need a pension after pushing up house prices for 40 straight years. God bless their fatty hearts.
-Hooliganism....You aint seen nothin yet. I dont think there is a single person in south Auckland who has a drivers license. Car theft is normal here.

Australia is a lovely place to live, if you're a boring person who loves an over protecting big brother government.
The best thing about NZ is that they dont have snakes, and the spiders here are just cute.

I only left because NZ suited my lifestyle better and its not so crowded here. I like Australians, most Americans i've met and quite a lot of Kiwis too. I reckon the 'good bloke to total knob' ratio is about the same in all countries. Somebody once said, "If you walk around for a day and only meet one asshole thats ok, but if everyone you meet is an asshole...then you're the asshole" haha I love that one.