Greg,
Our Operations Manager at work is from South Dakota, he's been here about a year or so, he pretty much said the same thing, driving all your life on the "right" side of the road and then come here.
With respect to the hair dryer, it does not need an earth because it has Class II insulation (Double Insulation), the RCD in the switchboard will protect anyone from electric shock.
It's a shame we never caught up, I only saw this thread of yours after you would have been in the North Island, I could have shown you around some of our HV stuff and a decent commercial install.
Glad you had a good time here, I mean it was never going to be as good as the US, in terms of the size of things, while the people are friendly, it's like anywhere I suppose, you can get mugged or shot in some parts of Wellington or Auckland, just like you can in a few places in the US.
What did you think of our roads here?, of course they'll never be as wide as in the US, but the quality of our roads are terrible, what do you think?
So Greg, what did you see in NZ?
I hope for Godsakes you saw the glow-worms at Waitomo caves?
It's a shame you didn't spend more time in the South Island, it is the prime time for fishing salmon and trout out of the southern lakes.
