We are planning to rent, though we did sell the house on the one side. There are lots of reasons - not knowing the area well on the NZ side and needing to get feet on the ground, not wanting to plant a stake in the ground, COST. Housing prices are high in NZ and just like in the US, at least in certain areas, it is actually cheaper to rent.
The funny thing about the "missing the UK" objection - and I don't mean funny, nothing about what you're sorting through is funny - but curious, especially to a Yank, is that (with some you talk to) NZ presents itself as kind of a "purer" version of the UK. It's not one of the flattering elements to tell the truth. I'm sure there are lots of tiny differences that a Yank doesn't even notice, like what's available on tap at the pub, or the way the crust is made on the shepherd's pie - but all Yank sees is that there IS a pub, and there IS shepherd's pie. In our whirlwind tour of pub life, more than one UK expat extolled the virtues of NZ in that it was not being destroyed, yes destroyed, by the immigration that UK is experiencing.
I hope and trust that not only the xenophobes are being exported, because I for one enjoy the melting pot.
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