Hi everyone and Happy NY. 

A family member is coming out from the UK in 2 weeks. We were wanting to get an Amazon Echo anyway so we're thinking of getting them to bring a UK-purchased Echo. 2 reasons for doing that, I have an Amazon voucher and they won't send the Echo to me in NZ, and I can get a Plus which I can't see available in NZ (happy to be proved wrong on that). 

Could anyone please advise any knowledge or experience of:

1. Whether the UK-purchased Echo would not work in NZ/have problems working in NZ? One of the main reasons to buy Echo over Google is that I believe it has more local apps/ability, so if a UK-bought unit would not give those NZ functions, there would be no point.  

2. Amazon Echo Plus, anyone using this? I was going to buy this as on the feature matrix on the Amazon site it says Echo Plus is a Smart Hub whereas Echo is not. Is it worth getting the Plus in order to future proof? Or can Echo work fine as a smart hub with a bit of tweaking? I would like to dabble with the whole home automation thing. 

Thanks in advance for any advice.