Tired of taxes and regulation in London but bored to tears by the idea of Switzerland? Step forward New Zealand. It's a great place to run a hedge fund because it's easier to take a dispassionate view, and the returns are higher, fund managers say. There is just the (not-so) small problem of trying to raise money so far off the beaten track...

Three weeks after the 6.3 earthquake struck Christchurch on February 22 , a round table of 10 managers and service providers from the New Zealand hedge fund industry met in Auckland to tell online press cuttings service Opalesque why they like working in New Zealand. Four of the participants joined from Christchurch; one of them was still injured from the earthquake, which left another now living with his family in a garden tent.