Howdy Propfails,

Yea, Twet has the right idea I think. We bought property here in 2002 when we decided to move here from Canada. At the time it was pretty reasonable, I'd been working a US dollar contract and we got almost 2 to 1, and you could buy and move a 100 year old villa for $75K NZ. Now, a bungalow south of Auckland with a postage stamp yard is over $600K new, and maybe in te mid 300's for an older one.

Many of our long haul pilots commute, some as far as the Gold Cost in Australia, so that should give you and idea of the ease of scheduluing. ome months are better than others mind you.

I think Americans, and Canadians are accepted pretty well down here. You're gonna get a little bit of the 'oh those Americans' anywhere, but I just counter with 'would you rather the company bought the A333/340 line? I didn't think so, so shut up.' Works OK. Seriously though, they are great people and very, very easy to get along with. We have some of the best culture and CRM I have ever experienced.

Many of our pilots, including those on the hiring comittee, are ex airforce and some did stints with you guys. The C130 thing is pretty much the secret hand shake as far as I can work out. So they tend to like that.

All this said, both Tweet and I had a head start with being married to Kiwis. How you get into the country is your deal, but we are getting way down the list for qualified people in the near future.

I'll PM some more details. Some things are better said in private.