You'd love New Zealand then. Beaches, mountain, volcanoes, lakes, rivers, forests, bush everywhere. Zillions of gorgeous places for people who want to and do lead a simple kind of life. Plenty of sunshine too - some places more than others. Our orchestras are fine and you could pop over to Melbourne for some great ballet and a city fix if you wanted it. NZ'ers are generally an unpretentious lot and we like Americans :-)