Having spent 18 days in New Zealand, I would offer the five positives and five negatives.
Negatives: (1) Auckland is mostly the only ‘big’ city of the country, and I would qualify the next five cities in size as ‘not that thrilling’. If you were drawn to urbanized areas, this is not the country for you. (2) Vast areas of the both islands where you are an hour or more away from any kind of grocery store. (3) Things are awful expensive. (4) Virtually everyone has acute criticism of politics and government accomplishments. If you thought it was bad in the US...it’s worse in NZ. (5) Tourism has probably ruined NZ, and no matter where you go...you will bump in Brit, American, Aussie, or Chinese tourists.
Positives: (1) No snakes. The complete opposite of Australia. (2) Virtually every single NZ guy will lay claim to twenty different skill sets, and be master of none. Houses all have obvious ‘mistakes’ built into them. But these folks all have the ‘can-do’ attitude about themselves. (3) Because of limited connections to the rest of the world....locals all read a lot. (4) For outdoor recreation, I don’t think any other country can compete for the options available within a square mile radius. (5) I ate out at five different establishments during the trip which featured bar-b-q’ed ribs, and would strongly recommend them for some of the best ribs in the world.
1 and 2 are positives for me.