If you live in BC, you are wasting your time moving to NZ.
From my time in BC, and knowing a few people over there, compared to NZ the terrain, weather, people, outdoor lifestyle are very very similar. I think it was a British colony at the same time as NZ, hence both places having lots of stuff named ‘Queen’ this and ‘Victoria’ that.
Except in Canada, imho there are more opportunities work wise and much more affordable travel.
The only reason entertainment/tech/animation work comes to NZ is because it is cheaper (pay is less) than Canada for our American cultural overlords.
There is a NZ tradition of going travelling for years and working in Europe, (the OE/overseas experience/brain drain), which is in part because opportunities for advancement and experience are limited by the size of the country.
New Zealand is a small bunch of Islands on the arse end of the planet, the nearest outpost to travel to is Australia, which is three time zones of desert with a little life on the shore lines but still an expensive flight from NZ. Vancouver, if you need to go to the USA you driver over the border. NZ, you are looking at a couple of hours to fly to Aus, 12+ hours to fly to with West Coast of USA or a couple of days to get to Europe (mandatory stop overs as no plane can fly from one side of the planet to the other direct). A return flight to Europe from NZ is roughly 1 months average pay after tax.
TV here is a mix of USA/British, with a fair few ‘localized’ programs (Australian Idol, Dancing With The Stars NZ etc).
If you are a lifestyler that wants to get a LONG way from anywhere, be well out of the rat race, be a long way from any friends and family you have in the Northern Hemi, come on down.
Or move to BC.
The football thing was no big deal, due to FIFA politics NZ is now in a qualifying pool of island teams that are not even in the top 100 with Australia no where to be seen. In previous years we had to get past Australia to be top of the pool and advance, hence only one previous appearance.