Apple haven't announced when the iPad is coming to NZ, but I have a feeling that they will be taking pre-orders shortly.

Until it's officially available, if you happen to come across one (say an iPad 3G just turns up on your doorstep from a friend stateside), rest assured that it will work fine with Vodafone NZ, even on Prepay. In fact I'd recommend going with prepay and either the casual rate ($1 on a day you use it, for up to 10MB) or Broadband Lite ($10/month for 100MB). As a bonus if you sign up to one of the Prepay SupaValue packs currently, they'll throw in 3 months of Broadband Lite for free.

It should also work with a 2degrees SIM, but I've only tried this on Vodafone with my iPad. Plus the 2degrees rate of $0.50/MB is pretty expensive.

To get it going, just purchase a Prepay mini SIM, and using a sharp knife and a pair of scissors, trim it down to the size of a micro SIM (3FF). An AT&T micro SIM is already installed in the iPad 3G when you buy it, so use that as a guide sizing and positioning. Instructions & photos on how to do this can be found on this Interweb thingy (say at this gentlemen's site in the UK or at How to make a Micro Sim out of a traditional SIM)

Just be sure to activate your SIM before you start the resizing procedure. Once it's in the iPad you wont be able to activate it or use it to top up via SMS as the iPad doesn't have a Messages app (for SMS / Texting). Likewise you won't be able check your balance via SMS or receive the Vodafone notifications when your credit is running low. I'd suggest using Consume from Bjango to keep tabs on your account balance.

The App Store doesn't work from the iPad, so you can't use the App Store app to purchase new apps or download updates directly on the iPad, but you can purchase most apps via iTunes on your computer (iPad specific versions included) and then sync as normal. The major exception to this is iBooks, which is only available to US iTunes Store accounts. So unfortunately early iPad owners will have to wait for the official NZ launch, unless they also have an account at the US iTunes store as well.

If you've got any questions feel free to fire them through