Winter in southern NZ is comparable to winter in Paris for nighttime temperatures and warmer for daytime temperatures[1].

New Zealand as a whole has warmer winters than the French Riviera[2].

[1] https://www.worlddata.info/climate-comparison.php?r1=fr-ile-...

[2] https://www.worlddata.info/climate-comparison.php?r1=fr-cote...

Your link shows that Southland is significantly colder than France for much of the year. No, the winters don't get freezing cold; it's not Iceland. But it never gets very hot either. Overall, it's colder than Western Europe.

Comparing "New Zealand as a whole" doesn't make any sense; the differences in the country are too large. It's like drawing conclusions about the climate of one state based on the United States as a whole (and even within some states there can be pretty large differences).

That sounds like parts of Spain. I lived in the south of Spain for a winter as I wanted to escape true winter. I live in Lithuania, and winter to us means -25c. My thought process was 'Spain is warm'.

While I was there I think the coldest it got outside was 3c one night, in the day it was above 15c every day and almost all days were sunny. The thing is though the apartment had no insulation and the windows didn't close properly (I could put my finger through the gap). It wasn't that it was a run down apartment, the rest of it was really nice (amazing marble courtyard) - this is just how housing is there.

As such inside - with a electric heater on all the time we were home - it barely reached 18c. It was also very humid as it was by the sea, so the whole time we were so cold. Compare this to where we live in Lithuania, where we don't even turn the heating on until it reaches freezing outside. Winters in Spain are not warm.