Hi Gemski

We had 3 weeks in NZ in October. It was spring when we went and we had a mix of sunshine and showers but I don't know what the weather will be like now. We had a wonderful trip, spent about a week on the north island and 2 weeks on South island.

We visted Rotorua first, we then took an internal flight from Rotorua to Christchurch, drove across Arthur's Pass to the west coast stopping at Hokitika, and Franz Josef. We then headed south to Wanaka and Te Anau, the did an overnight cruise on Doubtful Sound (amazing). We headed east along the south coast, via the Catlins and then up to the Otago penisula near Dunedin before taking another internal flight back to Auckland and spending the last few days in the Bay of Islands.

Here are some of my pictures to give you an idea, I'll send you a PM with a link to a more detailed trip report and accomodation we used.

http://www.worldisround.com/articles/317654/index.html

Hi Gemski
I posted above about some of our fav places. I also have some photos of our wonderful trip to New Zealand
Here's the link
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12218943@N00

Have you had a look at http://www.travelbag.com. They do some really good prices for flights to New Zealand. Remember however the internet is not always cheaper. My daughter is on honeymoon in NZ at the moment. They booked with Going Places. They had 19 nights touring in a camper van, in NZ taking in both the North & South Islands, a flight and one night in the Hilton Pearl Harbour and 6 nights in the Hilton in Hawaii for a total cost of £4,400 (this included the camper van) Do some thorough research before you decide.

It has to be Air New Zealand.....
Best seat pitch, fantastic entertainment and the cheapest when we checked out all the on line prices.

Enjoy your time here in NZ and Oz

Jules

Ive never flew with Air NZ so i cant comment although they do look very good! However i can comment on Thai Airways who were fantastic and you could stop off for a few nights in Bangkok which is very cheap, for acc. & food. oh and Thai have 34" seat pitch and excellant food on board!

Also consider Malaysia who stop via Kuala Lumpur a great city with lots to do and see and a very good underground and mono-rail which is easy to navigate. Malaysia Airlines also have 34" seat pitch.

Malaysia were also voted as a 5* airline by SkyTrax

Have a great trip.

Have flown with all three. My favourite is probably Thai only problem is they are only just introducing seat back video so you may be unlucky if you choose them, though normally food and service is excellent, they are rated 4* by Skytrax. Malaysia are usually excellent, good seat back video and service, though I found their food often a bit suspect, they are rated 5*. Air New Zealand , I have taken a short flight in economy and three long flights in Business with them they were all good, food average to very good, video reasonably good, but the over matey, jokiness from the FA's wore thin after a few hours. Rated a 4* Airline.
They all have about the same legroom,see http://www.airlinequality.com (Skytrax) for write ups on all three.