By the looks of that photo, you’d be only about 10 minutes drive from Queenstown, the biggest town in the centre of the South Island. Not that it’s a huge city, but as far as NZ goes, it’s a decent metropolis and has many of the mod cons one wants/needs, including some of the best skiing in NZ, excellent restaurants, bars, OK shopping, and too many Range Rovers and Porsche Cayennes.
But you’d still be surrounded by kiwis. 
Yep, but urodacus is an Aussie. If he returns to his native land, he’ll be faced with the same problem. 
Actually, I may end up living in Australia. It’s not nearly as scenic as New Zealand but it’s a great country.
[quote=“bobl”]
40 acres in the Northern AZ high desert.
I want to build my own homestead out of either Adobe brick or rammed earth, solar and wind power, subsistence farming, and a horse or two.
Less than 700 USD per acre.[/quote]
Update:
I bought a place on my trip home for the holidays.
Mine is on the left, 1/2 mile of frontage on the road. On the right is BLM (Federal Land) for 1 square mile, so no one can build there.
I looked at other places around this piece 10 years ago, they wanted $1300/Acre, and sold out before I could get the down payment together.
I got it for $670/Acre, plus I got a 10% discount for cash.
A question for my Marsupial friends, whats up with Emu ranching, and do they really taste like beef?
70 Mile view
View from my future home site.
Step one of my exit plan is complete.
Now I plan to work in Taiwan for a few more years to get the cash to build on it.
I don’t want any change of foreclosure, no matter how bad the economy tanks.
I’d put a few solar panels on that to make cash…can do they do that with federal land?
Congratulations, bobl, that sounds great. :bravo:
I mean that sincerely. It’s very cool. But, I’m curious about a few things.
First, I know there’s some very beautiful scenery in Northern Arizona (I look forward to seeing your photos when I get home and away from the IT blockage), because I worked at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon one summer and have been to Bryce, Zion, etc. Although you describe it as high desert, those areas do have lots of trees, vegetation, wildlife, incredible scenery, and of course dirt and sand. But there are long, long, long stretches with not much else in between (as in people, houses, stores, restaurants, etc).
Are you planning to move there and live there most of the year, one year after the next for decades perhaps?
Pardon my asking, but are you already 50 or 60 or 70 years old?
If not, I take it you’re planning on being entirely self-sufficient (with regard to income anyway) when you move there, right? You’ll spend the days farming, working on the house, hiking, biking, doing photography, collecting fossils/gemstones, etc., pretty much off alone away from the rest of humanity, right?
Are you planning on bringing a Taiwanese partner with you, or children? Will they tolerate it, be happy there?
How far to the closest grocery store? Gas station? Post office?
Have you lived way out in the boonies before? In the desert/high desert?
Roughly how long do you estimate till you’ll be moving out there?
Ok, bobl, I’m at home and finally able to view your place. Sweeeeet. What beautiful land. And talk about peace and quiet. . .
[quote=“Mother Theresa”]Congratulations, bobl, that sounds great. :bravo:
I mean that sincerely. It’s very cool. But, I’m curious about a few things.
First, I know there’s some very beautiful scenery in Northern Arizona (I look forward to seeing your photos when I get home and away from the IT blockage), because I worked at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon one summer and have been to Bryce, Zion, etc. Although you describe it as high desert, those areas do have lots of trees, vegetation, wildlife, incredible scenery, and of course dirt and sand. But there are long, long, long stretches with not much else in between (as in people, houses, stores, restaurants, etc).
Are you planning to move there and live there most of the year, one year after the next for decades perhaps?
[color=#0000BF]I will stay with my son for the summers, for the first 5 years or so.[/color]
Pardon my asking, but are you already 50 or 60 or 70 years old?
[color=#0000FF]46[/color]
If not, I take it you’re planning on being entirely self-sufficient (with regard to income anyway) when you move there, right? You’ll spend the days farming, working on the house, hiking, biking, doing photography, collecting fossils/gemstones, etc., pretty much off alone away from the rest of humanity, right?
[color=#0000BF]We will keep our solar business going here, I have trained my contractors, But I will need satellite broadband to upload my Autocad drawings and designs for the systems. I will also start doing solar and wind power there as well. The market in AZ is quite good, due to a lot of homesteads being to far from the power grid. [/color]
Are you planning on bringing a Taiwanese partner with you, or children? Will they tolerate it, be happy there?
[color=#0000FF]My wife and child. They have both been there and like the area. But we will definitely need to come back to Taiwan every year.[/color]
How far to the closest grocery store? Gas station? Post office?
[color=#0000BF]12 Miles, 30 miles to a good sized town, and 3 hours to a big city.[/color]
Have you lived way out in the boonies before? In the desert/high desert?
[color=#0000BF]I have lived in the boonies alot. I like it.[/color]
Roughly how long do you estimate till you’ll be moving out there?[/quote]
Yes, they do taste like beef. Beautiful land.
Check out the place this 60 year-old former advertising exec built for his family on a 100 acre parcel in Wisconsin, with a spring-fed lake, abundant x-country ski trails, and 3 houses so his kids and grandkids can visit which they often do.
nytimes.com/2009/06/05/great … 5Away.html
Not bad, eh? And lest you think it’s too remote or cold in the winter, the guy actually lives in Mineappolis and has an apartment in Manhattan and a winter escape place in Arizona. This is just his northern vacation retreat.
Sweet!
Wisconsin is an awesome place in the summer.
Ok, here’s another great deal from the NYT real estate section.
The house is a little small and the winters can be cold, but 80 acres at a good price in a beautiful location – upstate NY.
[quote]A two-bedroom one-and-a-half-bath house on 80 acres in the Catskills in a rural town a little over three hours north of New York City, is on the market for $455,000.
Part of the original structure of this home, once a schoolhouse, dates to the 1850s. The living room has a vaulted ceiling and a fireplace.
Over the years the house was rebuilt and expanded, leaving behind only two walls from the original building, one of which forms a side of the kitchen’s breakfast bar.
The back porch has southern exposure and mountain views. The property is almost 80 acres, about 30 of which are meadows and 40 are forested, with hardwood and second-growth trees[/quote]
The old adage. 3 things influence your real estate . LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION
I don’t know what you meant by that, in the context of this thread, but I consider Upstate New York to be a terrific location, having enjoyed some primo backpacking, canooing, snowshoing and x-country skiing there. It’s also just a few hours from NYC or Boston or lots of other, smaller cities.
Different strokes for different folks, but it looks like a fine location to me.
Didnt say it was bad. It looks quite nice , if you can afford to live a few hours away from NYC , in the wilds. And its not just about having a great house to be in, but what about your neighbors? How far away are you from your friends? From places to go and have a bite to eat , chill out at a bookstore, see a movie.
LIfe is not only about being in a great home out in the woods. You need the whole package.
LIfestyle, friends, things to do, income, etc.
If Bear Grylls can do it, I can do it.
Costa Rica sounds good to me. Maybe something like this.
Titled “A Home without Walls” in today’s NYT and built, land and all, for a little over $200K.
nytimes.com/2010/05/05/great … arica.html
Though you damned well better have good neighbors for a place like that.
The toilet without walls is pushing that envelope just a little too far. And you be forever dusting. And sweeping little buggy things back out of the house. And your toilet paper, and everything else, would be all soggy when it rained.
Not to mention firehose lenght boas who will find the toilet a very cozy place to spawn, scorpions in your toilet paper, roaches the size of eclairs on the light fixtures, and flying critters you really don’t wanna know about, from insects to bats. My favorite is a slimy thing that, if you touch it, the venom will kill you in 20 minutes… no cure, no antidote.
Ah, did I forget to mention in Costa Rica -well, closer to Nicaragua- they have what they call congo monkeys. They stand face to face to average tourist height…
ps.
there is a reason why the house is built on stilts, and it is not the danger of floods…
HOme is where the heart is ! DOes look nice but ya, boas in the toilet? NO GO> Congo monkeys?? NO thanks.
A friend of mine has two houses in the same compound in Grass mountain. Fab houses both of them. HE doesnt even live in them. He just rents them out (good money).
I would think living and owning those two houses in that great area of YMS and in Taiwan, would be just dandy for MOI>
p.s. what are these slimy things of which you speak icon? sounds very very dastardly indeed.