Where to Find Them
A hard copy of the 2nd N.Z.E.F. Nominal Rolls is to be found in archives in the basement of the Auckland Central Library. I have never ever viewed this and I am guessing that if one wants to do so or extract information from same, then this would need to be under supervision. Extracting information directly from these rolls might be fine if you are looking at just two or three entries, but you are not going to be left months at a time down there, by yourself, if undertaking a project on the scale of this one.
Some of the other major cities may also have paper copies. You would need to enquire of their library staff.
I decided for my purposes to work through the roll entries on the microfiches held in the research area of the library. Most of my extractions were directly from the fiches. The entries were fairly legible, for the most part, although a few pages were not and Errata were tabled at the beginning of each roll.
Members of the 2nd NZEF (IP) at a burial, Vella Lavella Island, Solomon Islands. New Zealand. Department of Internal Affairs. War History Branch :Photographs relating to World War 1914-1918, World War 1939-1945, occupation of Japan, Korean War, and Malayan Emergency. Ref: WH-0255-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http://natlib.govt.nz/records/22845810
“Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.”
The process was quite laborious though, inserting each fiche in the reader, lining it up, focusing etc. where relevant.
Certainly all of the Auckland libraries (and I am guessing many of the provincial ones) have paid access to Ancestry, (Ancestry.com). This means that these libraries allow free access to those with a library account, to Ancestry records (and to other useful research sites as well).
Ancestry has all rolls in digital form available for viewing. Again, problems with illegibility arise from time to time, and I have found the odd page or two missing. Things can also grind to a halt if you have many people trying to access the site at once. I also have some reservations as to whether all of the Errata files have been transposed.
That said, overall, the extraction process is faster. Also Ancestry has an excellent searchable index with a range of filters; great when you are wanting to know whether a particular person features on a roll or not.