Price to Pay . . . for Living in Paradise ??

Hi,

As this is the "Post it here if it doesn't fit anywhere else" section, I thought I'd ask this particular question here!

I'm hoping to be buying a MacBook Pro in the next few months, and was busy pricing one a few nights ago!

I arrived at the following spec from the Apple New Zealand Store:

# 2.66GHz Intel Core i7
# 8GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x4GB
# 500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm
# MacBook Pro 15-inch Hi-Res Antiglare Widescreen Display

Nice price too . . . at a cool NZ$ 4,987.00

So just as an exercise, I trundled over to the US Store, entered exactly the same spec, and came up with the following pricing:

US$ price converted to NZ$ = NZ$3690.66

Now, I know we live in a particularly wonderful part of the world, and pay a premium for living here, but what the heck is going on here??

That's a difference of NZ$1296.34 for EXACTLY the same machine !!!!!!!

I realize there are freight charges to be added to the US pricing, but crikey, I could buy a return ticket to the USA walk into a store, and pick the MacBook Pro myself for the difference it costs to buy one here in NZ. Why wouldn't I do that???

Is this a rip-off or what by Apple NZ, or are these prices dictated by Apple USA?
Who on earth works out these prices?

Comments and explanations most welcome.