I begged a bag of leaves from someone else and thought I had loads, but only got enough to fill 1 largish jar with them. You will find you get more fruit if you do prune it regularly, I have instructions somewhere on the correct way to do it.I wouldn't give up on growing capsicums outside in NZ though, I grew them sucessfully outside in the north of England, if they can grow outside there, then they can definitely grow outside in chch.
I will rehome your loquat, if its days are numbered, it stands a chance of fruiting where we are.
To others asking about the climate in NZ, it is pretty well asking how long is a piece of string? Although you have one variation in climate from the south to the north, getting warmer and more humid the further north you go, it also varies east to west - just the like UK it has a line of mountains (but bigger) running down the centre, so the west is wet (up to 15metres of rain a year) and the east is dry. In addition to the general trends in the climate, there are loads of microclimates. Although only half an hour from chch our temperatures are on average 5C warmer in summer and in winter, we don't get snow and last year even though it was a cold winter for chch, we only had a couple of mild frosts, though talking to locals those frosts were unusual. As well as lemons outside, we also have satsumas (fruiting), grapefruit (still young) and a lime and cactuses.
