Thought you would sway more towards New Zealand. I personally think there are far more advantages to living there over Australia.

Although one problem ive heard is electronics are insanly priced along with other good you may consider to be easily affordable.

Its likely to do with the lack of demand in NZ as its obviously a isolated country with a relatively small population.

Some other things.

Its quite a sports mad place, they have a very strong cricket and rugby team. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sport_in_New_Zealand

Generally there are probably four main 'issues' with my country:

1. We have a current account deficit in that the country spends a little more than it makes though recent moves for retirement savings have been made.

2. The country and its people tend to have a 'small country' type mentality in how we view world politics and events. We're like the little boy in the room jumping up and down for attention.

3. Theres a little bitterness and racism underlying the nation. This is related to the treaty of waitangi and how it is meant to be interpretted in the modern age. (oversimplification). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_waitangi

4. The quality of the politicians themselves are lower than in your country, Australia etc but I do believe their productivity in actually getting things done is higher. The problem here is that we can have some stupid small gafs in the legislation passed by parliament or they can generally make some stupid and unthought out decisions, though their interference level with day to day lives is pretty low. However I never hear about corruption and what little that appears is quickly dealt to. Recently we had a very big outpouring of anger for politicians taking their wives along for a political conference and we made them pay the money back. This was a few thousand dollars worth...

In general the country is liberal in terms of the freedoms of expression the people and the way we conduct our lives. To start a business essentially all you have to do is get your trademark registered although this is not strictly neccessary and/or register yourself for the 12.5% sales tax, but this isn't compulsary until you sell more than 50K of goods for most sectors.

Compared to your country both of the major political parties with the exception of Act are to the left of your political spectrum. The Act party themselves fashion themselves as a liberal party closer to your sense of the word however IMO they are badly run and their leader is an ugly bastard. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_in_New_Zealand

Our economy is generally based on three F's, Fishing, Forestry and Farming. However we have been making great strides in the service industries like computing and film production and with the cheaper labour costs here and our ability to speak english a few companies have started offshoring some of their operations here, for example 6-800 people were hired in New Zealand for post production on Avatar. When the news media wants to prove a point they tend to say 'we're becoming a third world nation' which is quite funny really. "World Bank in 2005 praised New Zealand as being the most business-friendly country in the world, before Singapore." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_New_Zealand

Generally the people are able to distinguish between the American government and the American people. Whilst you you'd find ignorance everywhere, we are generally well versed on the world. For the most part people with American descent are quite popular here because of the curiosity about the country you're from and because you come from a different english speaking part of the world. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_Demographics

Thats a bit longer but its my thoughts on my own country.

Thanks for all that Squilliam, it makes me even more excited about moving there.

I am going to apply for that job today. I know it's early in my search, but so far it seems great! I will keep you posted on my progress :).

The biggest hurdle I think I have, is selling the house I currently own. That's going to be hard.

No problem, honestly I find it to be a great place to live and people who come over here generally say the same thing. The biggest hurdle for you might be the immigration department as they are a bunch of incompetent tossers essentially like any government department really.

Hah, that's my town =P

It's a pretty cool place, it is completely flat apart from some very big hills off to one side though (the Port Hills).

Also we aren't the most capitalistic place in the world, the state sector is very strong. We have state owned enterprises (for things like railways and power) and also all the hospitals and prisons for example are state owned, run and payed for. We also do have a very strong and free private sector (perhaps that is less regulated than in America which may be what you mean).

Other things you should probably know, Christchurch is the home of bizarre murders in New Zealand

Also the quality of politicians being lower only means they are less likely to be deceitful lying bastards. Both our current Prime Minister and our last Prime Minister are actually extremely well liked by the populace. New Zealands political system is extremely different to yours though, in my opinion its a hell of a lot more transparent and efficient - I think you're probably going to like it.

It's a University town so there is a very strong student presence there, especially in the suburbs of Ilam and Riccarton.

And finally New Zealand as a whole has a bit of a binge drinking problem. Don't be surprised when you go into town on a saturday and its absolute chaos.

How bizarre?

Well recently we have had a man stab his girlfriend to death by stabbing her 200 times with a pair of scissors. He then tried to use the defense of provocation. We had two bodies that had been missing for years found underneath somebodies house. For New Zealand those are a bit shocking even if they aren't overseas =P

Hmm... after you mention the crime, I looked up the crime rate. It seems for 2008 the recorded offenses per 10,000 was 1015. That seems very high to me.

In comparison, where I live last year the number of recoded offenses per 10,000, was 99.

Is there really that much crime, or is it based on your lifestyle (meaning the collage kids get in fights and such)?

Bottom line, is would someone feel safe there?

I thought you had to under 30 to emmigrate to NZ, are you under 30 Mafoo?