Gained a lot of value from this thread so thanks, thought I would give back as I see no one has done NZ yet and a couple people had asked.
New Zealand, Auckland (lived there for 18 years)
Cost of living 3/10
On the expensive side of things, I remember reading we are in the top 5 countries in the CPI not long ago. Rent for a nice place in the city center youre looking at around $1800-$2k (usd). A Big Mac is about 5usd. 3 course dinner for two at a decent resturant you would be looking at about 150usd. I would say after rent and all expenses, to live a comfortable life style (nice house, going out , eating out, good internet, cable, etc) you would need about $3kusd/month and you will be far from ballin. Take $3kusd over to Thailand and youre a king lol. And if you want a chef/maid be prepared to pay the minimum wage of $12usd/hour.
Recreation/Nightlife 8/10
A lot of clubs and bars really cool atmospher at night. Pretty strong nightlife at world wide standards its up there with the likes of london, most EU places from what I gather although never being there. Main factors bringing it down from a 10 is it gets fairly cold at night even in summer and the girls are sub optimal and not very slutty in general, (I'll get to this later). As far as day activities go its pretty decent, standard stuff like golf, movies, etc is all good. Also if you dont mind a quick road trip out of the city and like outdoors stuff then NZ is the nuts, a lot of nature, rock climbing, rafting, para-gliding etc.
How scary 10/10
Safe as **** not much more to say I think it was rankked as one of the safest countries in the world at one point along with switzerland.
Poker 9/10
Dont know much about live as im only 18 (leagal age is 20 here I believe) but Sky City casino hosts the ANZPT and im sure cash games run regulary.
Online though is 100% legal, no tax, banks are easy going and should be easy to set up. Internet is great, we have 4g and its really fast (only thing stopping me from giving this a 10 is the simple fact I dont know how the live games are)
Getting there 6/10
NZ is pretty sucluded and far from ROW esp for you EU guys, I assume you know how long the flight is from your current destination to Aussie, then just add 3 hours and your at New Zealand. As far as visas go, have no idea obv as I'm a citizen but we have strong economic relation ships with most countries I would be suprised if it was too difficult to get a 6-9 month tourist visa. And I have a feeling most visitors can come for 3 months without a visa at any time. I guess just google it.
Girls 3/10
Gotta admit most girls aren't flash unfortunatly, and are usually pale cause of the cold weather. Obviously there are exception but the hot ones usually know they are a rare breed and are more stuck up and harder to pull, However maybe my sample size is too small
eh but if you are in decent shape and have money you should be alright I guess. But comapred to the likes of Latina girls, EU girls, or Aussie girls they look like dog food.
Quick note on the weather, I would say 5-15 degress celcious in the winter is standard and summer is high variance it might be 7 degrees one day and 30 degrees next but in general anything over 20 we are happy with anything above 30 and everyones dying.
Pros:
Good night life
Great internet
Laid back life style
1st world country
safe
Cons:
Expensive
Far away
Colder climate (but not too bad really)
Girls not gto
(have used USD here for ease, actual currency in New Zealand is NZD)