That's pretty low for that long experience even in NZ, what's your role and tech stack at the moment? Maybe I can find a referral for you if you want to stay in NZ. There are also Australian companies hiring remote that pay much better than that (e.g. Atlassian and Zapier,).

Hey I just checked your profile - how did you get experience with both Laravel/PHP and C#/.NET? I'm currently working with Laravel, and I like it but would prefer to get into C#/.NET.

Looking at job listings, most places seem to say that experience with C# is required. Do I just need to keep looking, or are these companies possibly more open minded regarding previous experience than they appear?

I worked at a company that used both.

Apply at jobs even if you don't have experience in the specific language, most of the time your fundamentals should carry you. If there's a specific role you really want, then make a side project on GitHub in the language you want to have experience in, and that can help get past any HR person that's just looking for a keyword on your CV.

Ah haha are you me? My situation is exactly the same - your comment makes me feel much better that I'm not the only one!

A few weeks ago I talked to a recruiter who confirmed that I'm being underpaid. Since then I've struggled to stay motivated, but I also really hate job hunting/interviewing etc. I'm technically self employed, working for a single client, so I'm considering telling him that I'm going to take Fridays off. If he doesn't like that idea I'll start job hunting for real.