I'm looking here
https://www.linz.govt.nz/overseas-in...-one-home-live - these information pages have been updated since I referred to them earlier on this thread. In the section
Can you buy a home to live in?, there's a link to an information sheet, and the following quote is from there.
Comparing these three points to your own situation, not being a lawyer, I don't know what the answer is. None of the examples on the page exactly matches you. I suspect (but this is just me, an ordinary person, guessing from what is written, and nothing official) it may make a difference who you were working for when you were overseas, and if you kept a home in NZ during that time, and there's also the issue of tax residence to consider.
There is a Contact Us link given on the page, and in your place, I would ask the question of the people there as your next step.