The meeting with Iain from Protea Pacific was this morning. It went really well. Our plan going in was to move to Nelson where I would start my own internet consultancy. That would be possible, but it is a very long bureaucratic process. It's much easier to go over as a "skilled migrant" with a job offer. Once you've worked for 3 months, you are free to leave the offered job and do as you please.
The only catch is that it's very difficult to get a job without being in country. And we'd need to look in a city larger than Nelson (ie: Auckland, Wellington, or Christchurch). We were told it's best to come over on a Visitors Visa, as if you were coming over for good, and start looking for a job. This generally takes four to eight weeks. Once we have jobs, our residency applications would be filled while in country.
We'd leave right away, except Lane is about to start a phatty new job. So we'll be in SF for at least the next 6 months.
Which is fine with us - There will be plenty of time to sell off all our crap.