Silicon Valley super-rich head south to escape from a global apocalypse
At the Republican party convention in Cleveland last July, Trump donor Peter Thiel declared himself '"most of all, proud to be an American". So it came as something of a surprise for New Zealanders to discover that the PayPal co-founder and Facebook board member had become an honorary Kiwi - joining a growing band of wealthy Americans seeking a haven from a possible global apocalypse.
Thiel was recently revealed to have bought a 4.5m lakeside property near the New Zealand town of Wanaka in 2015. When New Zealand Herald reporter Matt Nippert asked why Thiel had been allowed to buy land that appears to fit the classification of "sensitive" without permission from the country's Overseas Investment Office, he was told it wasn't necessary - Thiel was already a citizen.
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