My wife and I are planning on moving to New Zealand at the end of the year so I'm looking for thoughts on (but not limited to) buying precious metals Very much appreciated Disclosure - Wife is a Kiwi and her family are *mostly* there. Oh yeah - Dorkland is our destination (my preference in Jan was Christchurch but now... ) EDIT TO ADD I will be doing a "Sovereign Man" and keeping a flag (and bank account) in Australia PLUS my family will still be in Oz so I can still order here
I had a look at the cost of silver over there vs the cost over here. I found after you take the exchange rate into account you would be 3ish dollers per once better off if you bought in Aus and sold in NZ.
Yes, slightly cheaper to buy in Aus and bring over. Do you have any specific questions? Christchurch is awesome. We will rise again.
I'll post this comment in the NZ resources thread as well: I've checked out Rotorua today. There is a shop in the main group of shops, a short walk from the mall, which is run by the daughter of the original owner, Donald Ion. The shop was closed, so I visited Donald's other "shop", which is actually his home on Old Taupo Road. He has a shed out back from where he sells all kinds of memorabilia, though he is sadly out of silver and gold, and tells me he thinks his daughter is pretty much out of both too. I did find out that pre-1946 currency was 50% silver and post 46 has no silver. A general stacking piece of trivia is that the present decimal currency is quite different to ours. The 10 cent piece seems to be the smallest unit, and appears to have copper in it, but feels lighter than it should and doesn't seem to ring like copper. Seems like an alloy. The 20 and 50 cent pieces are very thin and small. The dollar coin is similar, but slightly smaller. The two dollar coin is a relative beast, but only a bit bigger than an Australian 10 cent piece, but slightly thicker than an Aus 20 cent piece. I asked Donald about Auckland and he said there is a guy called Jim Johnson in Glen Eden. He also told me that most of his trading is done on "trademe"... http://www.trademe.co.nz/ or to cut straight to "silver bullion": http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Sea...Search_keypresses=8&generalSearch_suggested=0
I realise this is a total tangent, but I've just fed a native hen a piece of bread. It has a prehensile grasp! It picked the bread up with the rear toe and pincered it between that toe and the front three. I was brought up to believe that prehensile grasp was a key factor in the development of the use of tools, advancing our species. However, it goes to show, that this ability is not unique to the simian line.
The thumb is defined differently form what I can gather, by having two phalanges instead of three (which defines the fingers), the rotation of which is governed by the array of metacarpal bones. The bird I fed is called a pukeko. I was ready to take a photo, but on the third feeding, it basically decided it had what it wanted and took the bread away in its beak. Prehensile grasp is apparently common, much more than I thought. Big cats and some lizards also have it. It sure looked odd on a bird.
link to the other thread on NZ from this site http://forums.silverstackers.com/topic-6946-nz-silver-reference.html
this is the bullion grade coin made by the NZ mint they also have a lot of really wonderful numismatic pieces, including their own Chinese lunar range
ferns are packed in sets of 10, though this is apparently in the process of being phased out seen here with shallot, chilli, pumpkin and egg
That is steam in the background, molten rock in contact with stream, there is some form of sulphurous compound staining the rock, and plently of sulphurous smell in the air around Rotorua. Wonder if silver tarnishes quickly here.
for those that haven't seen it, this is the Maori flag, flown all over houses throughout the Northland. It is curious that the cross of St George flies in the background, but as I gather the 5 tribes were only given a limited number of options. I think it is 5, but for some reason only 4 stars appear in the top left corner...
