[Coxy]

Well I lived in Hawke's bay before so maybe my opinion of the weather is biased, as it's always great there (although the Kiwis moan when there's a frost, which makes me laugh).

Traffic: I guess all cities have a traffic problem, but I still don't think Auckland or Welly are anywhere near as bad as Manchester or Leeds, let alone London.
The other thing is that you can't get away from it over here. Even in rural areas the roads are chocka. In NZ, once you're outside of the "cities" it's quiet. We used to drive from Napier to Auck quite regularly, and never got caught in a jam. Try an equivalent journey here!

When was the last time you were in the UK Taffy? It seems to have got a lot worse here over the past ten years. Having said that, I do remember moaning about Kiwi drivers when we were there. Nice people, but they're bloody awful at driving (no indicators, struggle at roundabouts, and a nightmare at overtaking on the "highways").
(I'm doing my whingeing pom bit now)

Coxy