How do people survive here?

Traveler from Southeast Asian city, here in your beautiful country.

I've been to Auckland, Queenstown, Arrowtown, Wanaka, Mount Cook and more... After ~10 days, my thoughts are: how do people survive living here in NZ? Meals are 20+ nzd each when you eat out, groceries are not cheap at all.

For context: you can find a meal for 3+ nzd when you eat out in Singapore, Thailand, Jakarta and many other cities in SEA.

What do people do for work here? Esp in small towns like Wanaka etc. I'm so curious