Thanks for your reply. I have about 3 weeks vacation saved for this trip and factoring in possibly getting bumped on the way there and/or back. We do like to sightsee and are flexible with our days we spend somewhere and like to get a good overview of each place noting where we would come back to in the future to spend more time. But you make a good point about factoring in the flying time. That I have not done but I know the longest flights are besides the over the water would be between Australia and AKL. BUT I have to also factor in the time spent getting to and from the airport as well as the time spent in the airport. We really want to go to Sydney and Melbourne but as fare as New Zealand maybe we can condense that to either the North or South Island. As far as lodging we can go budget to mid priced - luxury is out of our range.