Luke,
what you say is so, so true. Magnified many fold by where you are, no doubt, but it will do the UK wannabes no harm to learn that they are the blessed in this field!
We do get quite a lot of Kiwi wannabes on Pprune, but with your small population and your lack of profitable medium-range international routes, it's no surprise that jobs are difficult in your part of the world. That's no consolation to you, but a salutary lesson to the Europeans here, I hope.