Hey guys, I´m 29 from Germany and I reg Spin & Gos on Pokerstars.
I would like to go abroad for like a year to travel and play online. I would like to go to New Zealand, because it looks beautiful and it´s also close to my fathers country, the Philippines. I´ve never been out of Germany for longer than 6 weeks so any advice would be very helpful. I have a few questions and sorry in advance if some of them might be "stupid", but I just wanna be sure ;-).

-Is it hard to find a little flat and is it expensive? I only need one room, just for playing, sleeping and maybe make some food

-How is online poker regulated there? When I read about Pokerstars losing Australia, apparently it wasn´t surprising; could something similiar happen in NZ for Pokerstars? Could I be faced with some sort of taxes when I play online?

-How good is the general internet connection? In Germany it´s very good, but I quite often see for example players from Brazil getting disconnected. In the Philippines it´s not unusual to lose wifi connection every now and then as well, and since I am regging Spin&Gos, even some 20~second delays would be a huge turn off for me


I probably have more questions, but I can´t think of any for now... Would be nice to hear from some New Zealands and maybe someone who has been in NZ and also played online is reading this and could give some advice =)

Thank you

How about going to NZ for lets say 3-4 weeks as tourist and see how it suits you. For online grinder I believe SE Asia is multiple ways more convenient and cheaper than NZ. However countries like Philippines and Thailand are third world countries having a lot of downsides aswell. Internet has got better in Philippines my provider is called sky and it works like a charm.

Overall difference between SE Asia and Europe or Asia and NZ I think are similar. If you want similar quality of life (living , food, clean air ) as in Germany NZ can be place for you. If you look for seemingly nice condo with gym and pool and girls and cheap food deliveries and that kind of stuff and more relaxed people (everyone basically mind their own business or if have something to say its usually something nice) you should try to live in Asia and grind there and just visit NZ .

Thailand has better food and and nicer places to live for less money than Philippines. Never been to NZ and that's just my 2cents as European living in Asia.

thanks for your reply man, sounds like you live in the philippines, I assume in Manila...Would like to chat with you a little bit but looks like you can´t PM here, I´m new to 2+2

If you plan to play live, you will need to live in Auckland which has extremely high rents. Cheapest way would be flat sharing / renting a bedroom in a flat. Not a cheap place to live.

Internet - fine - ADSL in the main city & I haven't disconnected on stars for as long as I can remember.

There are no taxes on 'gambling income' in New Zealand!

There are no plans to ban online poker here in New Zealand. Plenty of Aussies have moved here to enable themselves to keep playing.

Hope that helps a little.

Lived/worked in Wellington for 4 years and also travelled to various places. Yeah beautiful country good weather and not disgustingly hot like Oz and people laid back down to earth.

Pretty amazing time zone for pokerstars too. Get up first thing and play peak mtts.

Auckland was one of my least favourite places tbh. But so many other nice places to live in NZ.