@treyratcliff

What Are the 7 Reasons Why I Moved to New Zealand? Before I get into the panoply of reasons, I can first tell you this is one of my favorite new photos I took a few weeks ago on a road trip through the North Island. Just looking at this photo, I remember the calmness and serenity in the natural Fibonacci rolling of the hills. It’s another one of those meaningful moments that sneaks up on you, and they mostly seem to happen in nature, at least for me. What a trip! I saw, after the debate, some of the most popular Google searches were: ‘how to move to Canada’ and ‘how to move to New Zealand’ – yeah I get it! I’m not being political or anything by the way… but here are the reasons I moved here about ten years ago. Note I didn’t include benefits such as medical care (universal, free, etc), a sane legal system (no personal injury litigation, etc), and many more, as those aspects are well-known. These are my 7 personal reasons! 🙂 1) The people! Kiwis are some of the coolest and most laid-back people in the world. They don’t seem to take themselves too seriously, which fits into my chilled-out zen mentality. 2) It’s a safe, international place to raise kids. I am NOT anti-USA or anything… however, I do know the USA is a “bit” of a bubble. I knew that travel made me a more gentle and understanding person as I interacted with different cultures around the world, and I wanted the same for my family. Unfortunately, last year, Tina and the girls moved back to Austin, but Ethan is still here in NZ. We planned a lot more back-and-forths but Covid kinda shut that down, which mega sucks! But, at least the whole family are full NZ citizens so they can come back any time :) 3) ... well I guess due to Insta limits you'll just need to click the link in my bio to see the full post! (Or check it out on my FB)

Tomorrow I'll be posting the "7 Reasons I Moved to New Zealand," on the blog and social media. People have been asking me to do this forever since I moved here about 10 years ago... so... I guess it only took about a decade to write! But my reasons haven't changed, but now I can describe them in a more cogent way since I've lived here with these awesome Kiwis for so long. As for this photo, this is from my most recent trip to New York City when I was on the Americas speaking tour across 20 different cities. I took this one right before Tane and I headed over to Brooklyn to have a night off at the Mayan Warrior event. I lost him halfway through the night, not too different than that time at Burning Man when Rene and I lost him. I expected him to wake up again miles away at the trash fence.

Hey I'm doing a fun giveaway for you and a friend! Just mention in the comments if you are interested and the friend you want to join you on this fun adventure... Since so many people were stuck at home during the pandemic, we gave away over $125K of my favorite Beginning Photography tutorial. That tutorial is actually part of the "Stuck In Customs Passport" monthly membership which gets you access to that tutorial plus over 200 other tutorial videos. The video above is a little old... it says 50, but it's actually a ton more now, with a new behind-the-scenes video coming out every Sunday. Anyway, I'm giving away five free year-long memberships for the Passport for you and a friend! If you want to find out all the cool stuff that is included, like Lightroom presets, Aurora Presets, tutorial packages, source files, etc... go check out the link to the Stuck In Customs blog that talks all about the Passport thang! It's at a very reasonable price, anyway. And, as usual (and I'm stealing from Sam Harris' meditation app idea here), if you simply can't afford it because you're down on your luck or a starving student or whatever, just let us know via Support and I'm happy to give you a free year. No problemo... I got your back! Anyway, come join in the fun... people are loving it, and you will too! Find out more via the link in my bio. :)

Burning Man in New Zealand - Kiwiburn! Man, I'm really excited to go to this after the regular Burning Man was cancelled. Since everything is wide-open here in NZ with no cases of the virus, it means these kinds of massive events can ensue! All the tickets sold out in less than 15 seconds! So, if you have any extra tickets, please contact me at wildcard@stuckincustoms.com since I have a bunch of friends that are keen to go. I've been invited by some old friends that have been to the Big Burn many times and they say this one in the rolling hills of the North Island is particularly special. Since it's an official Burning Man event, the same 10 principles apply, so that adds a nice consistency. Things like radical self-reliance, leaving no trace, communal effort, and so on... I'll put a link in the comments if you want to see all 10. Anyway, shoot extra ticket opportunities to that email above if you know of any, yo! 🙂

Here was a good find on the way to Mount Cook. I was really just lucky with the light... I didn't really plan on that!

This is back in the Earnslaw Burn about a 30 minute chopper ride from my place. I had Choppy fly me in here about four times to get different photos for every season... this is a pano made out of about 50 different photos. All along the top there are glaciers and you can sometimes hear them make cool cracking sounds as some ice tumbles down.

The moon sets over the snowy Southern Alps here in Queenstown...

We had a surprise dump of snow here over the past two days... I'm all holed up here in my cozy cabin working on some cool photo projects.

Here's a new photo from along the coast on the road trip around a big chunk of the North Island of New Zealand. The country may look small on the map, but it actually has a lifetime of places to visit! I'm pretty familiar with the rugged area of Big Sur along the California coast... and this reminds me of 100 Big Surs all in a contiguous progression.

Here's a view of Tara Iti golf course from above on the North Island of New Zealand. It's unique for many things... one of them is all these tiny little "moguls" (is that what you call them in golf?) that make the whole thing feel a fun and fanciful. Another cool thing is there is no actual difference between the "green area" and the fairway... the whole thing is mowed like one giant green!

Here's another photo from the road trip along the North Island of New Zealand. This is a 9-photo panorama that came out to a bit over 10,000 pixels across. I've never spent so much time on the North Island in the summer and spring (I'm usually down south with the snow), so it's been cool to see all the crazy storms and quickly things change. You can probably see a lot of the clay and silt runoff from the cliff faces... We did a fine hike here for several hours all the way from that distant peak to this spot. There were a bunch of mudslides and stuff so we lost the path many times, but it doesn't really matter because in NZ you can walk almost anywhere and find your way around these hilly, sheepy areas.

Cool! Just passed 6 million followers on Pinterest! Thanks everyone. I think I'm the only person on Pinterest that doesn't post photos of pillows with pastel colors. I mean, there's nothing wrong with that... I don't judge pillows by their colors.