I was just speaking to a colleague that arrived in NZ a couple weeks after I did. We have almost exactly the same education, professional experience, etc. He went with a consultant and I did my own. Other than the fact that mine went slightly faster (no middle man) and him paying many thousands more (for the middle man) we had a very similar experience. He was convinced that having a consultant improves your chances because INZ will see that you have already been vetted, however my experience doesn't support this at all. Unless you had a very complicated application (in which case I would have thought that an immigration lawyer would make more sense), I don't see any reason why you wouldn't do it yourself. There is as much expertise here for free as any advisor could ever have, plus here you get answers almost instantly and a bit of commiseration thrown in for good measure.