@HamishR well that was a very short stint in NZ for you then and yes, Auckland is not really NZ, it's just the big smoke where 1/3 of NZer live for some reason I don't get.
I do think a number of Kiwis come over the ditch to OZ because your pay is better (or so the media says...) and more opportunities (so the media says...).
Then there's of course personal reasons for what lifestyle one is looking for and I totally get that myself. I grew up in Germany / Europe and enjoyed that, big cities, culture, concerts, drive 1.5 hours you're in another country etc.
Glad I had that, so I don't need to miss it now.
As a country we certainly have our share of similar problems and issues galore as other OECD countries do have as well, no mistake about that.
I'm certainly not making advertising for Tourism NZ and I don't get paid by them (bugger), I just enjoy where I am in my life and that has been the case over many if not most phases of where I put roots. I am lucky in that respect for sure and I appreciate that, not trying to brag about it, just glad for my own little choices and making them happen, being able to make them happen.
I always thought since visiting NZ first time in 1991 that it is in many places like an overly dramatized romantic train set: mountains, lakes , farms, a bunch of happy cows and sheep, a few sleepy quirky towns and villages, wild bush and beaches, a few roads and a train going through.
Funnily enough I live now in exactly that kinda setting, even with a train line going past our house (there's not many trains in NZ).
I can totally see how this would not be for everyone, and also would not have been for me at some other point in my life. There's not a lot of nightlife here apart from stargazing and moreporks hooting, kiwi calling in the bush (the bird that is).
The next town and super market is an hours drive away and has 8000 peeps, that's the biggest town far and wide.
So yes, a different lifestyle.
And yes, you should come again and check out the other bits of NZ apart from Auckland...