Yep !

Looking forward for the race - and hopefully some good weather (but not too hot - the sun is really strong here).

Take a sailboat ride out on the lake. Lower your tire pressure. Enjoy the hospitality of the locals.

I would love to do that race again.

I remember in early 2000s John Collins was down in Taupo for IMNZ when we did the race. Being brief, he mentioned that the only real races that represented the true Ironman spirit were New Zealand and Penticton. I agree with him 100%. I think New Zealand is hands down the best race on the circuit. We have done Kona a few times and think it is pretty overrated and would take a NZL slot over Kona any day, but that is my opinion.
The community and fans are fantastic in Taupo. The town itself is beautiful and the food and cafes are top notch. For the course, the run is so good with so many fans out and about cheering you on, you never fell alone for too long. If you're not use to chip seal, the bike can be jarring, but nothing too brutal. Do it, do Ironman New Zealand you will not regret it.

Live in NZ, did the 2020 version.
Do it. The town loves Ironman and the race has a great vibe.

Some race specific tips.
25s over 23s. 28s over 25s if it suits your frame/wheels. New Zealand roads have deteriorated badly over the last few years and lean heavily towards nasty chipseal anyway.
If you're heading into Taupo close to the race, consider driving from Auckland or flying into Rotorua instead. The planes into Taupo are small and bikes have been known to be sent on later.
If you have the time, consider Challenge Wanaka in Feb as a warmup race, then see a bit of the country.

Don't worry about border closures or further lockdowns. There's an election next year and the country wouldn't stomach them.

The road here are really bad ! Coming from EU, it blows my mind. I was just about to rant a bit more on why would somebody do that, but turns out - some people already asked the question: https://www.nzta.govt.nz/...ia-8373-response.pdf

I've read some things recently about the recommended tire pressure - lower on bad roads, and I get the feeling one should go really low for IM NZ - any advice on this ?

I can't comment on the roads around Taupo at the moment, but the course is primarily on country roads so expect it to be variable.
I'm 84 ish kg and I did my last race in Napier on 28mm GP5000s at 60psi front and 65 rear. It was reasonably comfy, but the majority of the roads there seemed to be in the sweet spot where the roughest of the seal has been compacted down but the surface hasn't really started to break up yet.
I reckon I'd be okay dropping another 5psi, but bear in mind this is on rims with a 21mm inner diameter so I can go quite low before the tyre starts to roll about too much in the corners.
On my road bike I have 19mm inner diameter rims and I run about 75psi on 25s.
Hope that gives you a starting point for your own experiments.

haha, that response is BS! most chipseal applied in the last 5 years has been of such poor quality that it almost immediately starts breaking up, making it unsafe and very short lived so the economics change significantly. they have been saving money by not sweeping away the excess chip though.

also, WK/NZTA are effectively responsible for local roads as they control funding and limit council's access to asphalt - councils manage local roads but have limited resources provided by WK. in wellington we need to use a lot of asphalt because chip seal doesn't work on hills but WCC are having to use chip on roads they wouldn't normally because WK are forcing them to lower their use of asphalt.

Wow that's really low compared to what I'm doing ! I just run 115 psi (8 bar) as I always did...
And last week I did a long ride in Coromandel, with some terrible chip seal - I was very slow, which made me investigate a bit about why. It definitely felt much harder than it should.

Thanks !

For the December race, I had 28mm on the back, 25mm on the front and ran 75-80psi (GP5000 tubeless). Was comfortable however this is a pretty simple bike course, 95% of the time on the aerobars. The last 20km, my shoulders were packing up