Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
We are back in your life and today is infrastructure the solution to all of our problems, both economical and personal? For years, New Zealand's biggest cities have had gridlock traffic, public transport that doesn't really work. But there is a shining light in the economy. There is Christchurch that we want to break down today. Michael, you and I both talk.
We love Christchurch. We do love Christchurch. I was down in Christchurch like two weeks ago, three weeks ago, something like that. What an amazing city. Looking at a car that's not waterproof. Not waterproof, catches on fire, doesn't have power steering, can't be driven daily. It was cool though. Yeah, it was cool though. Yeah, but I'll tell you what, even, oh, you know, this relates to it.
I was test driving the car at like 3.30-ish in the afternoon after I'd flown down. And that's like peak school, you know, traffic. And they were like, oh, it's so bad. Like, you know, I was like driving around. I'm like, we're driving past schools. I'm like, this is not that bad. I mean, this is fine.
Let's talk about why Christchurch is booming a little bit. So a little bit around the property market to start with, because, you know, we talk about property around here. If we look at Auckland, property prices are down about 23% below the peak. Wellington is about 25% below the peak. Christchurch, 1.6% below the peak. Hmm.
Does that surprise you? And that was a big peak. No, it's not surprising because like if you're down there, it's a nice place to live. And I was doing something with the Wellington Post the other day on like the future of Wellington.
And they were basically like, look, the population growth estimate or forecast for Wellington has gone from 40,000 over 10 years to like 800, literally 800 people, right? And what I was trying to think about, I was like, would I be excited to live and raise a family and like my career and life in Wellington? Probably not.
And like instantly I was like, Christchurch though, you know, like, it's just like, there's a lot going on. It's a nice place to live. It's a beautiful city. The infrastructure is good. You can get around. If you live close to the city center, which like, to be honest, everyone in Christchurch, most of you do, you know, like it's not that you can walk most places.
Okay, let's do a quick game. Rank the cities, top three cities in the country you would live in. In your current situation, so working, professional, blah, blah, blah.
Ah, damn. Okay. Okay, well, Kaio's out. Kirikiri's out. We're my farmers. Um, the hustle and bustle. Okay. Just like pure. I have no, like the office can be anywhere. Like, yeah, but you've also got to factor in like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Relationships. Okay. So you're there. Um, probably Christchurch, probably Christchurch, Queenstown, or, uh, Christchurch, Queenstown, Tauranga, Auckland, uh,
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Chapter 2: Why is Christchurch considered a model for urban resilience?
I think- Why?
Because you don't know which order you'd live in then? Yeah. What's the attraction of a Queenstown over Christchurch, for example? It's beautiful. Yeah, pretty much. Do you know what is the splitter for me between putting Christchurch first or Queenstown first?
Chapter 3: How do property markets in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch compare?
Split them. the infrastructure in Queensland is a pain in the ass to get around. That's exactly what I was thinking. The traffic is unreal. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Are they doing a gondola from the airport all the way into the city center? What's a gondola?
Yeah, you know the gondola? Like in the Swiss Alps? Yeah. A gondola from the airport to the city center.
I don't know what you're smoking, but that is what. You got to keep talking.
I'm going to quickly check this. Cool. So in terms of infrastructure, when we talk about it, what are we talking about, right? What do we actually mean when we're talking about this thing? And It is not just traffic. Yes, good roading, public transport services are key to infrastructure, but it's also around the design of the city. How easy is that city to live in?
The design of the buildings, do they look good? Or does it look like Wellington? The schooling, everything that kind of the government provides, which is a framework for how kind of that town society lives in. That's what we mean when we talk about infrastructure.
It is something they're talking about down in Queensland. It's not locked in. Plans for a Queensland gondola could be submitted to council later this year with the first stage opening in late 2028. The problem is that one road just sucks.
It must be like mushroom season down there or something because they haven't eaten salmon. That's a very long gondola.
like also having someone who's been stuck in a blizzard on effectively a gondola you know the lifts going up the thing right i was like it was like my second time at the snow and i just like it was me and my sister and it's just like i mean i say it was a blizzard in hindsight probably just started snowing and i just threw a bitch fit like kicked off my snowboard and started crying i was like no i don't want to be here anymore take me back to the beach and
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