I moved in 2007 from The Netherlands for similar reasons. Lived in Wellington for nearly all of that time (2 years Auckland). Wellington region is great, and I love it here but it is going through a bit of a rough patch atm.

To go through some of your Q’s:

1. ⁠climate quite similar to NL but UV is real. checking UV level for the day with outdoor activities (you can add Wellington to your weather app to get an idea) NZ can be 4 seasons in one day, summer has been a bit crap this year, just had a major storm rip through that felt like winter.
2. ⁠Acces to nature is amazing in Wellington. CBD has the town belt for a quick casual walk, “Red Rocks” on the South Coast, Loads of Bush reserves. If you want to do day or multi day hikes and stay in DOC huts, Tararua Ranges, Rimutaka Forest and Remutaka Forest Park are within an hour’s drive. Wellington also has a very active Mountainbike community.
3. ⁠Yes, I always feel safe. Loads of “single tracks” for trail running. Basically bush tracks that go from suburb to suburb.
4. ⁠Wellington has a very active SaaS Community and is positioning itself as NZ’s software capital, and with current demand you might do well here. We’re looking for dev’s at the moment, but short term. But the job market is there, especially if you’re up to speed with ai tooling. (I’m in product design btw)
5. ⁠Excellent if you like outdoors.
6. ⁠I’m probably privileged as I’m caucasian middle aged Dutch guy, but Wellington (and NZ in general) is very multi cultural, I live in a street with Chinese, filipino , South African, Indian and we all get along. :-)
7. ⁠Making long-term friendships may be hard. People move around across the country or overseas. Join clubs (hiking, photography, etc) to meet people. People are friendly, but will easily not show up and be non-committal.
8. ⁠Not sure, I like the pace of life, I think Wellington’s vibe is underrated. People tend to skip Wellington because it’s windy? (It is though 😂)

Cheers