New Zealand premium pine. How good is it

Hi Guys I was in Bunnings today checking out materials for my built in wardrobe and I saw all this premium pine product of New Zealand in sizes from small battens to sizable shelves and it looked pretty good. I was wondering what you thought of this timber instead of meranti (or what ever it is called these days). The meranti seems to come in different qualities the lighter colour seems to be soft and not so dense. I am planning to use 42mm x 20mm battens to support the back underside of 1 metre wide 16mm melamine chipboard shelves to stop them from sagging and also use the same battens lying flat on concrete floor to sit my melamine chipboard shelves on. I might give them a coat of varnish to seal them first.