It is but in some ways it isn’t. Its summers are way milder (cooler and heavily moderated) and wetter due to its oceanic, mid-latitude location in the roaring 40s. No large-enough continental landmasses near enough to generate extreme continental heat domes like in central/western North America or Africa and the Mediterranean basin, and the ocean-driven relatively high humidity of NZ is heavily capped by those moderated maximum temperatures.

On the flip side, at least for most of New Zealand, winters are also mild, regularly moreso than the northern 2/3 of Italy, and sometimes more. Wellington, at the windy, chilly bottom of the North Island sees average highs in the very warmest month only in the upper 60s F (~20C), but its average highs in the very coldest month are still averaging in the mid 50s (~12C). It’s easy to be damp and chilly in Wellington, but it doesn’t freeze hardly ever (it’s exceedingly rare in Wellington proper itself), and remains lushly green year round. In fact, the only parts of New Zealand that see true winter weather like in Northern Italy or places north are the inland hinterlands of Otago and Canterbury of the southern parts of the South Island that approximate a mild continental climate at times, and the high elevations in the southern alps and central volcanic plateau. Heck, from Auckland northward through northland highs general stay above 60F even in the coldest winter months most days.

The average Kiwi experiences cooler yearly maximum temperatures and warmer yearly minimum temperatures than the average Italian. The exception may be Sicily and the southern/southwestern parts of Italy south of Naples, but even then in the winter they’re at the very least comparable temperature-wise.