"If he gets in, I'm moving to New Zealand."It became a throwaway refrain during the US election, a favourite quip for those who felt global political tides were looking especially ugly. But with Trump in office, nuclear codes in hand, some of the world's super-rich are making good on that promise.It's called 'apocalypse insurance', and it's lead to a flood of interest from US citizens looking to pull off a New Zealand getaway plan.Immediately following the election of Trump, Immigration New Zealand received 13,000 registrations of interest from US citizens hoping to come here - more than 17 times the number of registrations usually received in a week.The latest arrival is Facebook billionaire Peter Thiel, who has recently obtained New Zealand citizenship and bought himself a bolthole in Wanaka. NZ Herald's Matt Nippert was enquiring as to whether Thiel had gained special foreign-investment permissions to buy the land when he was told it wasn't necessary — as Thiel had obtained citizenship.
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According to the Herald, how much Thiel paid for the Lake Wanaka property was not disclosed in documents, but the property had a rateable value of $7.8 million and the most recent previous sale of the section, in 2002, was for $10.1m.Thiel himself is actually a prominent Trump supporter - he was one of the first in the business community to publicly announce his support during the Trump campaign. He was one of Facebook's early angel investors. More recently, he's the man who bankrolled Hulk Hogan's defamation suit against Gawker, which bankrupted and closed the publication.News of Thiel's property-buyup follows a report from the New Yorker on how New Zealand has become the destination of choice for super-rich seeking getaway options from a future political or natural disaster.Reporting for the magazine this week, Evan Osnos spoke to Silicon Valley's super-rich about their preparations for the worst.Linkedin founder Hoffman tells him, "Saying you're 'buying a house in New Zealand' is kind of a wink, wink, say no more." He calls it a form of 'apocalypse insurance' – a backwater getaway for when the end comes – if you can afford it."I asked Hoffman to estimate what share of fellow Silicon Valley billionaires have acquired some level of "apocalypse insurance," in the form of a hideaway in the U.S. or abroad," Osnos writes."I would guess fifty-plus per cent," he said, "but that's parallel with the decision to buy a vacation home. Human motivation is complex, and I think people can say, 'I now have a safety blanket for this thing that scares me.' "