The sneer didn't immediately melt, I must say, as Nesbitt opened the show babbling about us being "a country of contrasts", apparently, the world's third most peaceful nation and that he'd be exploring us from north to south to find out "what makes us tick".
I'd normally run away from ticking, but not Nesbitt, who went on to tick most of the boxes, visiting the usual places and doing many of the usual things as well as two unusual things.
One was being filmed turning over a pile of steaming compost in Queenstown with famous actor Sam Neill. The other was getting an actual interview with our most famous director - and Nesbitt's boss on those Hobbit movies - Sir Peter Jackson.
Elsewhere, Nesbitt's sheer Irish charm and the programme's gorgeous pictures made the parade of the familiar easy to take - enjoy, even. And sometimes the way outsiders see us is interesting.
Nesbitt thought Auckland "spacious", an effect you can get standing on a North Shore beach with Rangitoto behind you. And, of course, he had to do a few things that made him scream - jumping off the Sky Tower and doing loops in a small fast plane far above Nelson.
But in Christchurch, weaving in some very effective - and affecting - before and after-the-quake footage, Nesbitt managed to be moving.
Then, in Queenstown, after helping Neill with that compost, Nesbitt beat the pinot noir-loving Neill at a wine tasting contest, which was a nice touch, as was the discovery of Billy Black, a Waitomo sheep farmer with a fierce thing about wool. Determined to demonstrate the fibre's amazing fire-resisting qualities, the crazy farmer had Nesbitt turn a flamethrower on him and his woolly singlet. "Feel it," he said afterwards, dripping sweat, "it's only warm."
In Wanaka, Nesbitt attended the Perfect Kiwi Woman Contest - as you do - and caught one practical sheila flicking the top of a beer bottle with her large chainsaw.
Earlier, bobbing on a yacht in the Waitemata Harbour with Jonah Lomu, Nesbitt listened to the rugby great expounding on the link between All Blacks wins and the state of the New Zealand economy.
And I almost believed him.