There are three primary types of communities in New Zealand - online communities (mailing lists primarily), user groups and architecture chats.
User Groups provide an interactive forum where like minded professionls can get together and share their ideas, experience and understanding. This leads to an ecosystem of learning and an improved knowledgebase among attendees. These groups also provide great networking mediums where you can meet your peers, shoot the breeze and find out what is going on in the industry.
Architecture chats are developer focused and are more regular than user groups. These are hosted discussions that are highly interactive and informal allowing for a variety of opinions and approaches to be discussed and explored.