Hi Rotorhead. I just joined the forum and your post caught my attention. In Canada heli flying is mostly in the bush and thats all I've done including the float plane work before that. For the most part I love it. The times I've thought to myself "I can't believe they're paying me to do this -and how much" far outweigh the crap moments. So, if you like to fish, vast expanses of tundra, wildlife, gorgeous mountain settings and I shouldn't leave out the swamps
like the drill camp I'm in now, Canada is a great place to fly. I've only done summer contracts for quite a long time now and easily make enough to see me through the winter while travelling somewhere warm and interesting (plus salting away for future). I highly recommend it to anyone if thats their thing. You mentioned instructing - I couldn't imagine anything more boring to do with a helicopter other than offshore IFR or pipeline patrol - but thats just me. There's a whole world of specialty heli work thats a lot of fun and rewarding such as fire fighting, longlining, game management,..... and its all high skill "stick and rudder" real flying just like grandad did (but he didn't have wifi in camp
or gps). Canada gets quite a few people from abroad in its flying schools and many get jobs here too. I hope that was some help albeit only one perspective - and stay away from airports if you want to see the cool stuff
.