From 1959 to 1963, he lectured in history at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. While lecturing in politics from 1963 to 1967, at the University of Canterbury, Mitchell wrote a popular book about New Zealand, "The Half Gallon Quarter Acre Pavlova Paradise" (1972). The book title became a phrase in the New Zealand English lexicon. In the 1960s and 70s, New Zealand remained a milder version of the socialist laboratory it had been since 1935. In the 1980s and 90s, the same socialist Labour party's government transformed it into an open market economy. These drastic changes provided ample subject matter for social analysis and, 30 years later, Mitchell wrote "Pavlova Paradise Revisited" (2002) as well as a video series accessible on "NZ on Screen", after another New Zealand expedition. From 1967 to 1969, Mitchell was an Official Fellow at Nuffield College.