"Its winter then and you can have poor weather for weeks at a time."
Not having a go at you lilflyboy... but...
I wouldn't say this is totally accurate. I've never seen weather poor for weeks at a time maybe for a few days in a row but probably nothing comparable to what one would find in the UK.
IMHO - Typically winter weather in NZ is very good (as far as winters go) yes we do have a lot of powerful fronts passing through from the south but generally very fast moving and followed up by lots of blue skys and cool temperatures.
Probably some of the best flying in NZ is in winter.
Knox.