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Comment by tomhoward | Hacker News Reader

There are many great developers and communities (co-working spaces, meetup groups) in NZ in my experience.

I’ve worked with several developers from there (I’m in Australia), and they’ve all been very capable and great to work with.

Due to its lifestyle and culture, NZ attracts/keeps the kinds of people who care about interesting tech and worthwhile projects, rather than raw dollars.

Local salaries may be lower but cost of living is lower and work-life balance is likely to be better.

But timezone proximity to California and eastern Australia means you could seek remote work with bigger foreign companies that may pay better.

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Actually last time I was in NZ I ended up doing remote work for companies in the UK/Europe, it was a big factor in why I returned to London. It's a couple years later and while things are comfy here I do kick myself sometimes for not giving NZ a proper go re. a software dev job while I was on my WHV (working holiday visa). I think if I moved to NZ, I would have to work for an NZ company in order to possibly eventually qualify for residence, as I don't have any other ties to the country. Otherwise, I would definitely consider remoting for a foreign company.

I would've thought NZ would more attract people who are more interested in work/life balance and an outdoorsy lifestyle than people who are more interested in interesting tech/projects, for that you need to go to California or to metropolises like Melbourne/London/Berlin. At least this is what my stereotyped view has been.

EDIT: I misread that you were from Australia but in NZ, but actually you're in Aus.

Confirming I live in Australia but have worked/still do work with devs based in NZ.

> people who are more interested in work/life balance and an outdoorsy lifestyle than people who are more interested in interesting tech/projects

From what I've seen it attracts/retains plenty of people who are interested in all those things, rather than being primarily motivated by money or career status. There's a big intersect of people who care about well-designed software/technology, healthy culture and outdoorsy lifestyle.

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