I don't know if this will be much help but I can contact a friend that goes there often to buy woods and have them shipped to Australia (Queensland), and he may give a few contacts, will see...!
There are few things that will be trouble to you when trying to enter the USA Customs, and that is the wood borer signs and tree bark still attached, that will not pass, unless they offer fumigation or any other treatment to the wood at a cost, other times that offer is not an option and they simply destroy it.
This problem will become increased if you try to have the wood in your luggage, sizes restrictions may apply and again, any signs of fine sawdust/wood borer holes and bark will get you into troubles.
One of the things you should do regardless of what anyone may say is to go online and check wood export rules out of New Zealand and wood import rules into the USA, those are the most important points you need to worry about.
As for buying native wood in New Zealand, long gone are the days one could go there and buy lots of expensive/rare woods for a fraction of the price, however, that is no longer the case, the timber guys that had the good wood, they know its value and charge accordingly, in my view going there to buy wood would only work/be feasible if you have lots of money and ways to move lots of wood, such as a 24' container, the "volume" would compensate for the costs but small amounts in my view no so much.
If I was to go there to buy some woods, I would do so for the difficulty in getting some woods such as the birdseye Huon Pine outside New Zealand, going there to select the product from the source, would be in my view the biggest advantage but I would also expect to pay high dollar plus the shipping costs.
I don't want to discourage you, after all, you seem to need to go there for other reason(s) so, looking around would be interesting but remember, they know what they've got, if you know what I mean...!:biggrin::wink:
Best of luck,
Cheers
George
