Soon I will book my flights for next winter and the more I see and read about NZ, the more time I want to spend there. I'll still spend a good chunk of time in Aus., but would 6 weeks be too long in NZ? Can I expect to spend about the same per day as for Aus.?

Karla -

I've not been fortunate enough to spend six weeks in NZ, but I could probably easily do so. We're spending 28 days on the South Island this September. It's our fifth visit to the South Island, and we still haven't gotten enough, so I'd reckon six weeks won't be too much.

It would be easy to spend 6 weeks travelling around NZ and not feel that you spent too much time there. My family took 5 months and we wished that we would have had more time (admittedly, I was working some of that time).

The only reason that I could think of cutting the trip shorter than that would be if you felt that you wanted more time in Australia, which has far greater traveling distances.

We found Oz to in general be a bit less costly than NZ for many items and services, although the difference is probably not significant.

We spent 2 weeks in New Zealand in November 1999. All that did was whet our appetites. Went back a year later and spent 4 weeks. It's insatiable. One can't get enough of New Zealand.
John

Thank you all. I'm so looking forward to this trip and I think I'll allow 7 weeks for NZ. I'll be traveling for a LONG time and don't want to get exhausted rushing from place to place. After hearing the amount of time you've all spent there, I'm not concerned it will be too much anymore!