I'd also tack on that the variety of transportation options are very low. Cycling and public transit infrastructure is very poor and far, far behind other first world countries. From my understanding traffic and commuting in Auckland is a complete nightmare due to the weak public transit system. It's a bit of a southern hemisphere LA. Auckland has finally recognized they have a problem and they're slowly fixing things, but they have a long way to go. They've just recently reorganized their bus system so that should help some.
The housing bubble is extremely bad in NZ so that spikes the cost of living. Another con is that it feels that NZ, like many countries, is having trouble transitioning from the mindset that everyone should have a single family home, to one where denser apartment living is going to be necessary. Auckland is very sprawling endlessly as there's a reluctance to densify and change established neighbourhoods.