The luge track at the top of the mountain overlooking the town:


Looking down the gondola at the town. The green hut hanging off is a bungy jump. In the summer they shuttle bikes up the mountain with the gondola, and there's a network of bad ass trails running back down:


Mountain flying training in a cessna 172. This looks much better in person, anyone know how to adjust the color balance on this?


Saddle crossing training: hugging the walls of the confined valleys maneuvering to assess each saddle, then crossing at 50-100ft agl with rocky outcroppings just off the wingtips.

This site has some good pics of the downtown area. Everything is walkable in 5 minutes.

http://easywebsite.net/NewZealand-SouthIsland.html

Sick pad, must be awesome grinding with that view. Omg I have to go try that luge out. I'm so jealous....

everyone seems to be relocating out of the U.S, wondering if everyone realises how much of a massive jump it is just to leave all your friends/family/life behind and move out of the country to pursue poker?

anyway, gl with everything

I don't have a life or family in the US, but I had lots of friends in northern california and it sucks without them. It also sucks leaving when the weather was getting nice and warm. Hopefully I can make some good friends here, but I don't have much free time.

Good point, this will be hard for people to varying degrees. Instead of moving out of country to pursue poker I like to think of it as I"m moving to see other parts of the world.

You can make friends anywhere, but your only young once. Obviously some older people have obligations that won't allow them to move anywhere they want. You might as well take advantage of your freedom while you have it.

i can +1 just about everything sledgehammer has has posted itt. NZ is amazing the entire country is like a playground for people who enjoy the outdoors. i did a semester there in college and was completely blown away by how fun, beautiful,and safe the country was. after the semester was over i spent a month hitchhiking around both islands and met more redic awesome people who would not only let me ride in their cars but would often welcome me into there homes as well.

anecdotal story about the awesomeness of nz:
some friends and i bought a 88 holden comodor when we arrived after about a month tons of things had broken, lights would only work in bright mode, windshield wipers completely stopped working(rainy season in rain forests ftw) radiator had a constant leak ect. given all the aforementioned problems we were constantly being pulled over, easily 20+ times and never received a single ticket. during a break on the south island a friend and i were cruising along a hwy north of christchurch, smoking(tinies obv),speeding, and blasting a battery operated boombox. completely oblivious to our surroundings a cop had been trying to pull me over for about 20min according him. he comes up to the car absolutely livid,screaming about high speed pursuit this, evading police that, and eventually asks for my DL i give him my passport and he goes back to his car.a few mins later he comes back and apologizes for losing his temper -i was like ' yah no worries my bad too'. he then sent us on our way w/o a ticket.
i <3 nz

Lol, New Zealand seems like the most chill place ever. What did you do with your joints?

your anecdote seems like an exaggeration

bowl or mini tube (dont remember which at that point)was put away
kewl opinion. it not.6 month student visa was like a get out of jail free card for minor infractions.

ok well before someone takes your story to heart these are the following infringement fines enforced by the cops:

Not wearing a seatbelt
$150

Going through a red or amber light
$150

Not having your driver's licence with you
$55

Not holding a current driver's licence
$400

Breaching a condition of your licence
(also incurs 25 demerit points)
$100

No current warrant of fitness
$200

No current registration
$100

Also; they can arrest you if they believe youre driving under the influence of weed.

Traffic cops are all over the place in NZ and they routinely set up road blocks.

+1 to sounding like an exaggeration. I was just there for 6 months or so, got pulled over once and received a ticket.

i was in violation of none of these. so not sure what ur point is. and fwiw a vast majority of the traffic stops happened on the north island in or around waikato (where we were at uni).

another incident: me+5 friends (yes more ppl then seat belts) put an order in at pizza hut then go drive around/smoke while waiting, park in a residential neighborhood to continue.after a min we get swarmed by 3 or 4 cop cars (who probably thought we were gang members/hoods up to no good) then after a 2 min respectful convo were let off w/no ticket.

my interactions w/nz police constitute an absurdly small portion of the experiences i had in nz which have led me to claim that it is my favorite country in the world (that i have visited obv).

im not trying to derail this thread,we all construct our own world view based on the experiences we have (which are inherently/obviously unique to each person).

FYI if you are playing cards for a living your earnings are taxable in NZ.

I approached around 10 accountants trying to find one who would say I didn't have to pay tax. All but 1 said I needed to be paying tax, the 1 that didn't was only 50:50 on weather i needed to be paying.

Here is some info an accountant sent me re tax. All the replies I received were basically the same as below.

"Gambling winnings can constitute taxable income if betting is indulged in as a means of producing an income as opposed to gambling as a pastime. (Duggan v C of IR 73 ATC 6001). If the client makes a professional living from the gambling, and has very little other income, these factors would indicate that the client is playing cards as a means of earning income, and it is more than just a pastime or hobby."

Maybe you could get around this by being a part time student or working part time....but if the IRD (tax man) decides to go after you, you are assumed guilty and its up to YOU to prove you are innocent.

A link to a recent IRD news letter which specifically mentions online poker (scroll to the bottom of the page under Future Focus)
http://www.ird.govt.nz/aboutir/newsl...-12-10.html#16

I'm not sure how much weight this newsletter carries....

If you want to avoid tax then I'd suggest moving to Australia instead. If you setup a residence in Australia then your winnings would be tax free. You could also travel to NZ very easily for months at a time.

People who say that poker is tax free in NZ are either, assuming that NZ and AUS tax law is the same (they're not!), have not got any professional advice themselves or, have advice from an accountant that i'd love to use (PM me!)

@Cyphernz: Thx for the reply. I've PM you to keep on with the conversation.