Taking Money to NZ

if all banking is carried out electronically

That's the catch. Doesn't allow you to withdraw cash for free, only transfer funds in and out electronically.

Once you have an NZ account and you have transferred funds from your UK one and then have your salary paid into it it does allow you to withdraw cash for free same as any bank account.

I have an ANZ Freedom account and it has a $5 a month fee for unlimited EFTPOS and withdrawals from an ANZ ATM machine. Comes with two cards (dont ask me why), one of which is a Debit card. You do NOT need an IRD number to open an account but you wont get the tax thing that banks do.
HSBC isnt a big bank player here and I feel is used more for commercial banking. There arent a lot of branches, in fact couldnt tell you where I've even seen any.

I'm off to NZ in a fee month and have opened an account with ANZ. You do it online and get the BIC and IBAN before you arrive so you can send funds over. When you land, take some ID and they give you a card.

When I was in Aus, I sent money from my UK account to the Aus account using FairFX. It offers better rates and the charges that are applied are something crazy like only $5/$10 priority.

Take some prepaid cards with you to tie you over for the first few weeks u til you can sort your NZ account. I took a bit cash to Aus but I won't be taking any to NZ.

Sorry, I meant CurrencyFair not FairFX.

but if you are Barclays in the UK, you can use your BC in NZ for minimum fees, ie, just pay forex, and no ATM fees.

Are you talking about a Barclaycard (credit card) or a Barclays current account with debit card?

Thank you all so much for helping, this is fantastic. Feel much happier now about it. So much more sense here than anywhere else that I've looked for info!!

Thanks again
Bethen.

HSBC's presence in NZ is pretty much irrelevant and I have never seen an ATM. Westpac is affiliated with HSBC in NZ though and you can bank much easier with your HSBC bank back home through Westpac