I'm a long way from New Zealand, but closer to home, sometimes public libraries allow someone to come in and present a short talk -- give an overview of a topic (in this case Perl) and see afterwards if anyone who shows up (if anyone does) has an interest in banding together to learn more.

Another idea might be to do some sort of presentation to your new co-workers, showing them a couple of useful things Perl could do to make their lives easier and see if that generates some interest. Either way, you might find some like minded people interested in forming a kind of study group, not as formal as Perl mongers, and see where it goes. And neither option commits you to any kind of "full course" sort of thing.