Your "warblings" don't sound like nonsense to me. They make perfect sense. I felt the same shock at the housing standards and the difficulty in saving money. I know the nervous feeling of that ball in your stomach that seems to grow in direct proportion to how the savings dwindles.
I do think Kiwis are a bit more used to cold houses. I don't think liking it a bit colder is equal to living in a damp and uninsulated house. There is something a little askew when you have to go outside to warm up. IMO, I don't think it's necessarily central heating. In my life, I've lived in very few houses with central heating and because I'm too cheap I've never actually used it. I lived in San Francisco in a house built in the 20s and I even lived in a basement flat where the bottom of windows were at ground level. SF is notoriously damp and I never had the problem with mold and dampness that I do here. Double glazing and timber framed windows make all the difference even in an old poorly insulated house. My MIL had some kind of central air circulation system put in her house and although it is still cold, it is no longer damp which really makes a difference. She claims it's warmer and I just nod my head and smile.
I think Kiwis are trying to change their housing standards but it's expensive and isn't going to happen overnight.
A tip on the washing, my sister-in-law has one of those old fashioned pot racks that hangs from the ceiling and she has rigged it on a pulley system to go up and down in the area in front of her fireplace and she hangs her washing on that and it dries in no time. When it's not in use it doesn't look like a laundry room. I've just got a line strung from one side of the room to the other in the room where our logburner is and that works too. It's a bit Little House on the Prarie but it's better than wet waistbands. I can usually wash and dry two loads in the evening doing this.
People are interested in people here.
To me, this is the most important aspect of NZ and you said it succinctly. This is such a special value even when I'm wearing two pairs of socks.
I hope you know that you are not alone in your observations, your hardships and your questioning your decisions. Summer is just around the corner and hopefully you'll be in a singlet watching the sunset at 9pmish with a glass of sauv blanc and dipping a cray in butter trying to remember what it was like to be so cold.