Terry,
I'm an apprentice here in Canada and was hoping to move to NZ once I become licensed.. I was told that (once I'm licensed) when I come to NZ I have to take Level 3 & Level 4 exams, whatever that means. You can work right away with some sort of temp license, but you're supposed to be supervised. The US/Canada electrical codes are very similar, so I imagine the say would apply to an American electrician.
If you read that news story about the British family that couldn't get decent paying electrical work, I recall he said he had to pay around NZ$2000 to take the required coures.
Hope that helps a bit..
Darren