Hello everyone,
We are returning again this November. We visited last year and afterwards applied for residency under the environmental scientist on the LTSSL but they rejected my geology degrees because I was lacking two classes. I offered to take those but they said then that it would have been after my work experience so they wouldn't count the work experience. Either way no big deal but we are going to try the long-term business visa route with the entrepreneur plus residency route.
We currently have started, wholly own, and operate several wood-fired pizzerias and breweries. We want to start a similar restaurant brewery in NZ and are narrowing down locations. We want to be close to both mountains, rivers, and ocean (pretty easy), we want to be in a smaller town/city (around 10,000 population would be ideal) close to a larger area, we want to be in the drier climes, and want a town that has a nice downtown (vs sprawling).
So far we are thinking Blenheim/Renwick, Napier (kind of large), Gisborne (not sure of the feel/vibe of the area), maybe Whakatene, Nelson (may be overdeveloped). These are just general areas and I'm hoping you could throw out your favorite little thriving town that could support a small brewpub.
We will be flying to Christchurch and then campervanning it northward. We have about six weeks this round and at the end hope to have finalized potential locations to less than three. If any of you are interested in our current restaurant check out www.eddylinepub.com as we will be doing a very similar theme just simpler.
Cheers!
Mic