# New Zealand: Beautiful, expensive, and maybe not for working

- **Episode:** [220](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/220.md) (2025-08-05)
- **Type:** other
- **Tags:** new-zealand, travel, cost-of-living
- **Time:** 3:12–4:34 (start 192s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/220?t=192](https://truthliesandwork.com/220?t=192)

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[3:12] Leanne Elliott: Okay. Oh, it's like a raffle. What have I got? New Zealand. We spent about a week in New Zealand visiting our sister
[3:21] Al Elliott: She lives in Auckland
[3:22] Leanne Elliott: Beautiful
[3:24] Al Elliott: Hello, Lorna
[3:24] Leanne Elliott: Yeah, beautiful part of the world. I was working quite a lot there. I don't think you were as much, but when my main client was an Australian client, and it was cool because it's the first time that I was actually a time zone in front of them. It's never happened to me before. Um, but really it was just kind of kitchen table vibes. We were only there a few days
[3:41] Al Elliott: Practical considerations for New Zealand. First of all, it is quite an expensive country, even compared to like the US and the UK. Um, I think we went out, we had like 4 beers and something to eat, and it was about £150 for 4 of us or 5 of us. And secondly, data. I saw my backside at the airport because I'd just come from Southeast Asia where you can go and buy 40 gigabytes for £5. And we got to the airport and Vodafone shop were trying to sell me something stupid like 1 gigabyte for $50, which is about $20, $30 US dollars, $50. And I was really angry about that. So if you do go to New Zealand, then you'll probably be more Wi-Fi hopping than you will be on 4G because it is expensive, man
[4:23] Leanne Elliott: Yes, it is. And also, do you know what? I'm not sure New Zealand is the type of place where you want to be working remotely. It's so cool. There's so much to see and we didn't see much of it because we were only there a week. So, so yeah, expensive approach with caution