Well of all the places I visited, I would say Christchurch would be the #1 city I would select to live in so that's a great choice IMHO. As for the reasons and observations here are a few:

The good:
New Zealand is beautiful. The landscape is awesome everywhere! The people were 90% friendly & helpful. I would say 100% but I had too many negative experiences with Air New Zealand personnel and this is where the 10% negative comes in. I felt comfortable and safe everywhere I travelled (I can't say the same for many places in the US - especially at night). I was truly amazed at the number of women walking/wondering around by themselveslate at night almost everywhere. [If you visit the US, please don't try to do this - even in National Parks!]

I will also add that the food was much fresher and less 'processed' than in the US. I didn't particularly like the bland taste of most NZ food but eggs, ham, bacon, milk, butter, etc tasted fresher and better than in the US. (No preservatives/additives?)

The bad:
I had dinner with an ex-pat American I met through a mutual friend in the US. He gave me his 'perspective' on his migration. He married a Kiwi (now divorced) and still lives in NZ because of his kids. He was a fairly high level executive in the US for a major company and spent his first couple of years struggling to find a job. He was consistently told that he did not have the 'New Zealand Experience' for any given job he was applying for even though he had 10+ years of experience. He mentioned some of his expat friends had similar situations/stories. Keep in mind that I've been an executive for 10+ years and I don't particularly intend(ed) to start from 'scratch' to 'prove' myself in the workforce. This was highly discouraging for me and my wife (she's also tenured professional). I heard similar stories from other people I talked to throughout my journey all over NZ so my perspective isn't based on this single person but many different people. I believe I have read similar stories in this forum. I'm not sure if UK people have it easier or not - this is strictly the American perspective.

As a side note, if I ever told a perspective employee here in the US that he/she didn't have the right 'American experience' you can bet your butt that this comment would likely land me and my employer in a courtroom because of a discrimination lawsuit but I guess laws are different.

Secondly, New Zealand is expensive! With the current exchange rate of about 1 USD to 1.60 NZD we didn't exactly 'struggle' to pay for anything but it occurred to my wife and I that earning NZ Dollars things would be much more expensive than I pay for in the US. Our cheapest restaurant meal was at McDonald's and a family of four cost $30 NZD to dine as we do in the US. The same meals in the US cost $17.00 (we know because we did it just as we got back). We paid on average between $50 - $140 to dine in restaurants while in New Zealand. Buying groceries at a store wasn't exactly cheap either. 3 or 4 slices of packaged ham cost $3 NZD (almost $1/slice!). The grocery selection is limited. We couldn't find any of our favorite cereals, Frito Lay products, etc. The kids didn't like ANY cereal we bought them and we bought a half dozen different kind!
We looked into housing and we figured we would need to spend between $400k to $600k to live in an 'equivalent' house of where we live now. We have a two story 2700 sq ft. home with 5 bedrooms, office, living room, dining, room, family room, etc.
While in NZ, I drove a Toyota Camry (4 door sedan) and every time I filled up the car with gas it cost $100 NZD. Gas is $1.70/litre or $6.44/Gallon!


The Ugly?:
I hope no one takes offence to this as I do not intend to offend anyone but just publish my general observation as we heard/saw/felt but...... we noticed many people did not appear to be happy with their jobs or have any passion for their work. In speaking to many people we got the general impression that people had an attitude of 'defeatism'. Many people we spoke to talked about moving to Australia or UK or somewhere else to make a better life for themselves. We ran into a single woman at a car rental place that said she was happy to be living in NZ and that she loved it. Finding a person like this was rare. Keep in mind that people were ALWAYS friendly and helpful but I generally 'sensed' that people showed up to work to do a particular task/function then go on with themselves after. Perhaps I didn't get the exposure to career minded people that I should have but that's the general impression we got.

I had read about animosity towards Asians and I got some open and honest feedback as to why. What we heard was that many 'wealthy' asians were mirgrating to NZ and driving the cost of housing (and other things) up. We heard that many wealthy Asian fathers send their spouses and children to NZ while they remain in Asia. The net result are wealthy asian spoiled brats driving around in Mercedes and BMW's living it up while others struggle to scape by to afford some decent housing. We noticed that Auckland had a great deal of graffiti almost on every building and perhaps this had something to do with it? I must admit that walking in downtown Auckland I almost felt as if I were in downtown Hong Kong with such a large Asian pop