Tinpis, You sure aint from the deep south (picks banjo
) or you would know that it gets hot as a snakes belly in a wagon rut round the central South island in summer. Wanaka can be around 35 c day after day some summers.
BYI is a great ship and was very well looked after by EC in Wanaka. He did have a couple of fairly minor landing mishaps but yes BYI had a dream early life compared to the rest, and had all the bits.
I know of at least one which Rural built from Parts and wheeled out and registered! No Cessna SN. For that matter by the time they did the topdressing mod to wings and Fuse they were fairly non standard anyway. Cgg still has all the extra structure and is about 80 KG overweight but stronger than stock.
NZ numbers are building up and they are becoming one of the more common older types, as the early 172s etc are not worth doing up and slowly head to the tip. It is just a great type for this country and our engineers charge less than most western countries to work on them I guess.
Finally a thought on costs. My cousin has a nest of Robbies and he laughs at me every time I snivel about the bills for the 185. Probably because even a R22 is about $250 000 to do up ( About the same as a 185) but only does 2200 hrs or 12 yrs then its off to the tip.