[wldlyinaccurate]

I left NZ in 2011 and came back recently. It's still more or less the same place I remember. If you are an active outdoorsy type, I don't think there are many places in the world that compare to NZ. Where I live I can be at a surfing beach within 10 minutes. Rock climbing in the hills in 10 minutes. Skiing in the Southern Alps in 2 hours. Hiking a beautiful trail in 2 hours (with warm modern huts available for 5 NZD/night). All while having access to free healthcare, and a decent disposable income thanks to a relatively low living cost (Auckland is an exception).

Downsides are poor public transport (cheap Japanese imports mean everyone chooses to own a vehicle), expensive food compared to EU or USA, and few jobs outside of the tourism & service industries.

[keithnz]

I pretty much avoided auckland public transport for a long time, then a few years ago, I started taking the train, and that's actually been pretty good and its faster than taking the car, pretty reliable. I've noticed in the last year or so a big increase in usage. NZ Tech industry is growing steadily and was on track to become 3rd biggest industry (not sure what the lockdown fallout is going to be like) and tends to be quite diverse with various niche companies. Just not many companies (at least prelockdown ) were remote friendly.

[ravenstine]

That's funny, because I found the transportation in Wellington to be lightyears better than what we have in LA. Granted, the trains were older at the time(I think they've since been replaced), but I remember being able to get everywhere pretty easily by train and bus, and walking was a cinch. But I guess all public transit elsewhere seems pretty good when you're coming from LA. haha