I knew there was something preventing me from sneaking across the NZ border..The "something" is likely to be the relative value of the $. The NZ dollar has appreciated 100% against the US since Y2K. IOW everything is now twice as expensive for US visitors even before allowing for other price inflation.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
