A new Wellington NZ based user group focused on WPF and Silverlight for designers will be holding their first meeting on Thursday the 13th of September.  This is awesome to see.  Now if only Wellington wasn't so far from here, I'd stop by :)

From their about section:

If you want to join ZamDes you can email Nas with your name and email address or leave us a comment.  Our monthly meetings are scheduled to start in mid September, the first session will be an informal introduction to WPF and Silverlight and info on how it can be used by designers to produce functional, visually rich frontends for web and client applications (and all without writing managed code!). 

We’re still finalising the exact dates and locations as we’re keen to keep the venue and frequency consistent.  We also have heaps of cool events in the pipeline, including a remote presentation from Lee Brimelow (frog Design, USA), the latest info from major MSFT events, and celebrations to coincide with major industry events and technology releases.  And of course they’ll be loads of time to drink, eat and just chill out.