Apparently, from what I've learned so far, people aged 18-30 can get working holiday visas for New Zealand for up to 12 months.  Us older folks have to get temporary work visas that let us live there for fixed periods of time.  Alternately, one can get a skilled worker visa that lets one live there indefinitely. 

In other words, you have to get a job in New Zealand before you can move to New Zealand, but you have to live in New Zealand before you can get a job there.

I'm sure I can figure out a solution - I just need a little more time,

Meanwhile, how to get there?  Sure, you can just fly over, a 24-hour or so flight from North America, but there are better options.  It's not cheap, but the adventurous way seems to be to take a freighter over and arrive by sea, just like old Captain Cook did centuries ago.  

There's a freighter that leaves Charleston, South Carolina, and travels down through the Panama Canal.  From there, it stops for a few days in Cartagena, Columbia before the two week voyage to Aukland.  It's uncomfortable, expensive, dangerous, and time-consuming, and sounds like the perfect thing to get one's mind off of the potential travesty of democracy if Trump is elected president.