Not so anymore. In Aug last year the NZ Govt put the stops on any programable walkie talkies (Baofeng, Wouxun, etc etc) being privately imported.
Go onto Aliexpress and search for Baofeng. You won't get any hits for radios. Change your country to the UK or the USA and they are all there.
Buy once cry once. Get a pair of high quality hand helds (GME, Uniden etc) and spend some money on better antennaes if you are searching for better comms distance.
Using these UHF units you will still not match the tx/rx distance of VHF hand helds, but thats the way it is now.
Techy internet types may be able to circumvent things by using Ushop or some such
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