No Peter Thiel

On a mid-December morning, Rob Vickery, a venture capitalist who arrived here a couple of months earlier from Los Angeles, sat in an Auckland cafe reflecting on the question of why he of all people — a former manager with Britain’s Lloyds Bank, a business consultant to Eurythmics producer Dave Stewart and, more recently, a tech investor in California — was so well-suited to living in New Zealand.

“I’m from the West Country in England,” he said. “The accent sounds kind of similar. And the people there are very humble, not flamboyant. Which is something that people in LA sometimes struggle with.” He gave this some thought. Then he said: “I’m sure there are people in New Zealand who find me annoying but…” (more thinking) “… I believe I do fit in here. I fit in perfectly. This feels like home.”