"NZ is still a fairly clean country - are there policies in place to keep it that way?"

Nuclear anything is banned.

The North Island and South Island don't get along too well. Well, it's more Auckland of the North Island is really disliked by the south. It's like talking about New York City to Texans. City slickers with no real need for a 4x4, pampered, etc is the view of Aucklanders.

Racial diversity is more so in Auckland. It is after all the polynesian capital of the world. Don't see many islanders (poly) down south. Still a good amount of Asians (typically Chinese) though.
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Laid back - Slower pace. I've also seen a lot of Kiwi's without a lot of goals in their life. That's a drawback to it. I know of guys in the states without goals, and that's not normal. Where as in NZ it's not out of the ordinary.

Also the women in NZ tend to wear the pants in the marriage much more often than US women. This has been explained b/c the guys are so laid back.
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Arts - Wellington is the place for that stuff. However there is a good amount of stuff in Auckland too. I'm in Christchurch at the moment, and there is a pretty big arts center in the old University of Canterbury campus. Pretty much the whole thing (very historic/nice) is now an arts center. Those 3 are the 3 biggest cities in NZ (Auck - 1.4 mil, Wel 500K, CH 350K).
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Church and state - The government is pretty liberal. Free healthcare for residents and such. There is a strange political party associated with the Destiny Church though.

You shouldn't be bothered with your religous affiliation. Kiwi's don't mind.
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Average salary is about NZ $36K (25ish US). Pay is less, but living costs can be more or less depending on where you are (Auckland is the most expensive). Double check rent/mortgage it may look super cheap, but that's b/c it's in terms of weekly instead of monthly.