

Why Auckland, New Zealand is a great place for startups - moses1400
http://www.centernetworks.com/why-i-love-auckland-new-zealand#comment-52971

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bsaunder
_We are lucky today that New Zealand is less than 24hours away from almost
anywhere in the wold by plane..._

Oh, how convenient! Only 24 hours by plane? ;)

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timcederman
It's worse than that if you want to get to anywhere other than the major
cities. If I want to visit my grandmother in Motueka, I need to fly
BOS->LAX->AUK->NEL, and then drive an hour from Nelson. That appears to be the
most direct route, and with flight schedules being what they are generally
takes a couple of days.

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dylanz
Exactly. I just moved from Takaka to Seattle, and still have to travel there
from time to time. SEA->LAX->AUK->NEL. My last trip was from Nelson to
Connecticut: NEL->AUK->LAX->ORD->LGA->BDL. Ugh.

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timcederman
Might want to take off the anchor in the link.

Having worked in Auckland with a small company, I can't say there's anything
that compelling about it. Sadly my least favourite NZ city.

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benhoyt
Yeah. Christchurch, NZ is the place to be! :-)

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fungi
Naa Westport is the place to be

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catch404
You from Westport or is this a joke? Looks like a nice place to visit.

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col16
I hear there are even startups in Invercargill- believe it or not!

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catch404
Invercargill would proberly be a pretty good place for it, If they have decent
DSL or better. I'm expecting it to be a good combination of cheap living with
the benefits of a (small) city but may be wrong on both counts!

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jhancock
I have looked into doing startup work in NZ. Try getting a visa. As a U.S.
citizen, I can get a travel visa. To go that route, I have to leave every few
months (I forget which it is, but even 6 months is too often/costly). As a
visitor, you can't do lots of things a startup might need (bank account, home
DSL modem, house lease, etc).

Options on permanent residence or long term stays are limited. NZ has a great
visa program for attracting qualified folks for hard to fill jobs. But that
doesn't fit for doing a startup.

I was hoping this blog post had some new info like "NZ creates a tech startup
visa"

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callahad
Look into the Working Holiday Visa. For US Citizens under 30, it's one full
year, without any real work restrictions.

The main hooks:

\- You must be coming to New Zealand to holiday, with work being a secondary
intention for your visit.

\- You must not take up permanent employment (unless you apply for and are
granted an ordinary Work Permit while you’re here).

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jhancock
thanks for the info. I am over 30 though. Not sure why they would have an age
restriction.

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pyre
Maybe it's just more likely that people in the 18-29 age range will be
_actually_ going there to vacation while maybe picking up a part-time job to
earn some cash and/or interact with the locals/local culture. If you're over
30, maybe there's an expectation that you have the earning power to be able to
save up for such an excursion without needing to raise extra funds along the
way?

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mkramlich
All the Hobbits running around. Little hands, hairy feet. Perfect for
startups.

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sho
Hm, I know someone who wants to live in Auckland - she's fanatical about Les
Mills exercise programs and their HQ is there.

