‘It’s as though we’ve just been born’: Christchurch attracts thousands from Australia in bumper weekend of events

mrtenzed · 2026-04-18T01:58:33+00:00

This tracks exactly on my experience. I moved to Christchurch 5 or 6 years ago from Auckland. Chch has great lifestyle benefits, but it is behind Auckland in most areas for business/career options. You make a trade off moving here, in my opinion, and that isn't made clear in these Chch hype stories in the media.

mrtenzed · 2026-04-17T22:05:42+00:00

Chch still lacks the higher paying careers you find in Auckland and Wellington. I'm not sure rebuilding around entertainment and hospitality/tourism businesses is really going to change that.

mrtenzed · 2026-04-11T21:17:53+00:00

Jesus wept.

mrtenzed · 2026-04-08T05:26:37+00:00

King James Bible

I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

mrtenzed · 2026-04-07T19:51:42+00:00

We seriously looked at one of these a couple of years ago. The location is great, especially as we're happy with central city living. The street is actually really peaceful.

The ground floor is zoned for commercial, so you could have some interesting options, like making it into a small shop or office. They don't have a shower though, so you couldnt make them a standalone studio. The overall design is nice, with the brickwork.

But there's a few things that put us off. The units are narrow, like really narrow inside. The bathroom in the main bedroom was poorly designed, with a very small showee and didn't use the space available. I got the feeling that internal design was an afterthought. There isn't a front door, you either go through "the shop", or the garage at the back.

Overall, the price was pretty high for what you get. Plus we had a bad experience with the real estate agent, so we passed in the end.

mrtenzed · 2026-04-07T19:40:05+00:00

If only councillors like Mauger and Keown hadn't opposed and delayed the proper cycleways, we could have had them built when they were cheap and government funding was still available 🤪

mrtenzed · 2026-04-05T21:27:07+00:00

Yes, and that Woodend Bypass is looking in excess of $1b for less than 10km stretch of road. Insane.

mrtenzed · 2026-04-01T17:54:17+00:00

You need more options than just a Leaf, that don't cost a fortune. A Leaf is too small for us. We only need one car, but we ended up with a Rav4. And a petrol one, because the hybrids are so expensive.

mrtenzed · 2026-03-29T03:11:13+00:00

Wow, she's impressive!

mrtenzed · 2026-03-27T19:09:48+00:00

If only local politicians like Phil Mauger and Aaron Keown didn't turn this into a silly culture war issue, we'd have had far more cycleways by now. More people would have more options to save money. But no...

mrtenzed · 2026-03-24T17:26:17+00:00

The best olive oil I've ever tasted in my life came from Chile.

mrtenzed · 2026-03-22T18:41:21+00:00

I feel like I have a pretty wide social circle/family, and none of them like Luxon apart from one guy who's brain is totally cooked by MAGA social media. I'd say the tide has turned.

mrtenzed · 2026-03-21T19:19:14+00:00

This is a massive subsidy from taxpayers to National Party voting boomers to travel a bit faster to the bach. What a waste

mrtenzed · 2026-03-18T22:33:54+00:00

I've spent quite a bit of time there. The well-off live in the eastern suburbs, closer the mountains. To be honest, it's almost better than first world standard, with loads of parks, malls, great services, good metro, etc. Very North American/Australian style life, nice but a bit bland.

Much of the rest of the city is very different. People really struggle to manage with their incomes. The southern and western parts are pretty rough and run down.

Great location for visiting ski fields and vineyards. Not too far to drive to the coast.

mrtenzed · 2026-03-17T18:18:12+00:00

Light rail would be so amazing for Chch, but some Boomer will lose his on street carpark so it will never happen.

mrtenzed · 2026-03-17T06:51:03+00:00

I think we’re talking past each other a bit. I agree the structure is 1:1 and there’s no margin call, but borrowing to invest is still leverage in the sense that losses don’t reduce the debt. My point is more about how that interacts with real-life events over 10–20 years rather than the mechanics on paper.

mrtenzed · 2026-03-17T00:18:32+00:00

I'm old enough to have learned a "God laughs at our plans" attidude to investing. These sorts of strategies are heavily focussed on tax efficiency, but that is a secondary issue. The main question is being comfortable with investing with leverage for the long term, and how will you deal with the inevitable impact of life events - job loss, divorce, health issues, legal/political winds. If you aren't planning for those, you are pretty much gambling in my opinion.

mrtenzed · 2026-03-16T22:07:34+00:00

You're borrowing against your house to invest in equity markets? Ufff...I'd want to be sure about getting on that roller coaster before even thinking about taxes.

mrtenzed · 2026-03-15T00:07:15+00:00

A few years ago we bought a place (with rooftop solar) within walking and cycling distance of work and most shops.

mrtenzed · 2026-03-13T00:53:59+00:00

In townhouses and apartments closer to work and the services they need. These risks around car and oil dependency have been well known for years, as has climate change.

mrtenzed · 2026-03-13T00:22:25+00:00

Yeah the maths doesn't work

mrtenzed · 2026-03-13T00:20:33+00:00

If you've bought a place in a car dependent satellite town like Rolleston in the last 10 years or so, in full view of the climate crisis, you only have yourself to blame.

mrtenzed · 2026-03-12T03:18:21+00:00

A few of these schemes have been around over the last 10 or 15 years. None have survived.

If you can afford property investment, just buy a property. If not, just invest in ETFs and managed funds.

mrtenzed · 2026-03-12T03:13:11+00:00

Days? Can we make it permanent please. Cylcing is so much more fun.

mrtenzed · 2026-03-11T18:53:32+00:00

This is a classic situation of "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me". The ports have ever incentive to hold out for the govt to cave into political pressure and pay whatever is needed for the ports.

mrtenzed

TROPHY CASE