"Mike Barnes" wrote in message
...
Bob Minchin :
Mike Barnes wrote:
.

Internal travel is more difficult than you'd think.


Could you expand on that comment please Mike?

Roads are generally poor and distances great. Internal flights are
expensive. I didn't use the railways but from what I recall they were
few and far between, and rather slow.

Our experience was the opposite. Ok few of the roads are motorways but they
carry so little traffic that driving is a pleasure. We loved dawdling along
at 30-40 MPH knowing that we were not delaying anyone.

Your idea of just booking hotels for arrival nights is a good one. Make sure
you book hotels with an airport transfer bus, then take that back to the
airport next day to pick up the hire car.

South island is best accessed in and out via Christchurch. The alpine train
over to Greymouth is well worth the ride. You can then pick up a hire car at
Greymouth and return it to Christchurch as we did. This all assumes
Christchurch is still as accommodating as it was, we were there between
earthquakes and although lot of the city was damaged then it was "business
as usual".

As for the Auckland sky tower see.
http://share.ovi.com/media/Muddymike...e.10727?sort=2
They do clean the glass!

Mike