Having recently left my last position as a Senior Systems Admin. I'm now in the process of making a shift in IT career paths to a developer of some sort of description.

OP, you really should consider making your way here to NZ.

Just jumping on the bandwagon to say that NZ is an amazing place (visited for 2mo) and seemed decently hospitable to various foreigners. Not as diverse as the US but it's a wonderful place to live/work with great people.

Yeah, if the alternative is working for free and crashing on someone's couch, NZ would be an awesome place to go. Also it's a relatively easy immigration process, compared to the US at least.

Having said that, Auckland felt like a bit of a technical wasteland... I've heard it's better down in Wellington or Christchurch, but I never regretted moving to San Francisco.