SV Panta Rhei Retirement Trip

New Zealand lacks personal complexity and paperwork.

We bought a car, licensed it, purchased insurance and state permission to drive, by listing on a sheet of paper only the name and address of the seller, the name of the buyer, the license plate number that is already on the car and the sales price (and calling an insurance company). The seller emailed the paper to NZ authorities who apparently make all this available on line. You don't have to make any trip to the Department of Motor Vehicles. You don't have to carry proof of insurance or registration paperwork in your car. Your foreign drivers license is good for a year. Curiously, automobile liability insurance is not required. Boat liability insurance IS required. Taxes for roads are collected by a sticker you have to purchase each year.

New Zealand has toll roads but not toll booths. You have 5 days to pay for your trip online. Billing is based on license plate number using image interpretation software. Signage is exceptionally clear so you know what you need to do.

New Zealand has an income tax but for most people no income tax form to file. Your employer deducts tax from your pay according to gross annual income and that is the end of it.

New Zealand has no paperwork to get health care. All accidents are covered, even for visitors like us. Other healtcare needs(for non citizens) can be purchased for a fixed price. One cruising friend had a hernia operation for $6000. If there are complications in the surgery, that falls under "accident" and it is covered automatically. There are no healthcare expense surprises. Because healthcare is covered by the state the cost of auto insurance and also the need for auto insurance becomes small and optional. Only property is involved, not personal injury.

We do have a few additional things we need to do though:

(1) we need to maintain a warranty of fitness for the car annually; the date is shown on a sticker on the windshield of the car (2) We have to have our boat power chords certified for safety and compliance to standards of performance (a test is run) (3) We need to have our propane tank pressure tested and certified before they will fill it

These certifications are expensive and bothersome when you first arrive, but the flip side of the coin is that everything works well and is pretty safe. Obtaining service to bring things into compliance is easy and competant.

All this stands in contrast to the third world where we have been cruising. The third world has rules too, but generally they aren't taken very seriously except to extract corruption payment. New Zealand takes its rules seriously. These rules are NOT means to extract a bite out of tourists or citizens. They exist and are enforced for a purpose. We are very careful not to break a New Zealand rule. That would be expensive.

These differences are interesting because they reveal alternative ways of living that are fully developed but different than the US. I'm sure we will be learning other differences that I haven't mentioned. All this has consequences and so far we aren't finding the consequences to be very troublesome.

The picture shows an ocean cruising powerboat (first seen in Samoa and now in Auckland) that is an unusual but apparently workable design. Its an alternative to trawlers that appears to be quite fast.