thanks for the refare warning. That's a real concern but I'm hoping that a schedule change happens between now and thne that I could work in my favor to move my return flight to SYD to the SI rather than the currently booked AKL.

If that doesn't happen i'll just hop a flight from wherever i end up (assuming i actually pin down my itinerary)\

To answer an earlier poster, i'm actually flying UA NYC-LAX-SYD then ANZ SYD-AKL.

It depends how you travel. If you are just winging it, booking a flight and nowt else, then you can do tons of research before you go, and collate lists of places you might want to stay, and timetables for buses/trains you might want to take.

Or you can get the book of your choice and photocopy the relevant pages.

Most previous posters, I suspect, book a lot of stuff in advance and use travel agents and that sort of thing.

If you don't - well, I think you could get by in NZ without a guide book, using the photocopy method, because there is so much info available on the ground at all the hostels, and an mainstream tourist info places.

For bigger countries (most recently Mexico) I've found the photocopy method just isn't enough. You think you know where you will go, but somehow the plan always changes.

And besides, sometimes you want to refresh your memory about the history and politics and stuff.

So, even for NZ, I would take a guidebook, as a guide, not a bible, and I would recommend either LP or Rough Guide.

Footprint is good too. But when push comes to shove if you are a budget traveller and need info about how to get from A to B, and cheap places to stay LP is probably still the best.

Eyewitness is totally useless on that score.

If you are pre-booking everything and have a travel agent doing the legwork, then the photocopy method may work for you. Though why folk who travel that way, and who I doubt ever have to carry their bags are concerned about the weight of a book is a puzzle.