Baches? We don't need no stink--- oh, never mind.

Quintessential Kiwi is the bach (pronounced 'batch').  A bach is a remote vacation home in some impossibly gorgeous location.  Some are high-dollar luxury lovelies with SkyTV and glassed-in balconies, but most are more down-to-earth affairs with spartan accomodations that may or may not include electricity and running water.  Yoopers, think deer camp.

Kiwis love buying baches (see the post about retirement-fund real estate barons), but more, they love going to their baches.  You pack up your car with a chilly bin of groceries, some sunscreen and bug spray, some clean sheets, and you're set for a weekend of BBQ and dangling your toes in the lake and looking at the mountains while the campfire crackles.

There is even a whole industry centered around baches.  Being vacation homes, your bach is empty more than it's occupied.  Why not rent it out to those poor souls without a bach?  And further your retirement goals that much more?  Well, because it's a five-hour drive to my bach, that's why, and I don't know if renters would wreck the place--it's not practical.  But what if you had a trustworthy local caretaker to handle unlocking the doors, checking in on the renters from time to time, cleaning up afterward and handling any maintenance?  Yeah... I guess I'd be fine with it then. 

Thus, bookabach.co.nz was born.  Rural folks make some pocket money by handling the logistics of renting out someone else's cabin for a cut of the rental price.   What a nice cottage industry.  (Sorry.)  Baches go from $20-$200+ a night.  We will have to rent a bach at least once-- it's probably in the fine print for the citizenship application.