I'd like to emigrate to New Zealand and am trying to work out the best path to try to do so.

I have been in New Zealand for the last 10 months (of a 23 month working holiday visa) and I've been working as a painter in Christchurch for the last 8. I had thought my only hope was to try to find a girlfriend and live together for a year to qualify for a partnership visa, however I'm now looking into whether it might be possible to work towards qualifying for a work visa afterall. I'm Welsh, in my early thirtes and my only family are dead so I have no ties.

For the skilled migrant category can I claim points for both working in a skilled occupation (painting trades worker) and for having a qualification (a degree in philosophy from the University of Hull in the UK), though that is unrelated to that work? The woman I spoke to on the phone at immigration this evening seemed to think I could but I want to double-check as she was having to look things up rather than knowing them. On a related note a UK degree coresponds to level 7 in New Zealand terms, yes?

I don't have any kind of painting qualification nor plans to get one. For painting trades worker the ANZSCO website says 3 years of relevent experience can count instead of a formal qualification. The lady I spoke to on the phone looked it up and said I would need 2 years not 3 but I suspect this was a mistake?

I had been talking about having to finish up but my employer is keen to keep me on and to get a work visa sorted for me. Painting trades worker is on the special Cantebury list but I only have 8 months experience and not the 3 years it asks for. However it seems they can apply to the Cantebury Hub anyway and they could decide either way (I'm going to ring this Hub in the morning and try and get a better idea). The downside is it would replace all the nice time remaining on my working holiday visa and tie me down to working for my company for however long the work visa would be (I'm hoping 2+ years). My employer says there's plenty of work next year but if things fall through I would have a problem.

Painting trades worker is currently clasified as a skilled occupation but it will take two and a third more years to get the required 3 years experience to count as skilled in it. Do the lists of skilled occupations change over time? It's not on any of the shortage lists (apart from the Cantebury one) but I need it to still be a skilled occupation by then or I could waste years of my life for nothing.

If I eventually get the sufficient 3 years experience and go down the skilled migrant route (points checker suggests I'd have 170 points) then is that residency free and ongoing from that point? Do I have to stay working in the area of a painter for any length of time then or can I do something else entirely? (I'm getting sidetracked with painting but I'd really like to be an organic farmer).

Thanks in advance for any help / replies! :-)