Bret

You'll know that geographically Australia is a giant desert with a thin green border where most people live. It certainly gets very hot in the summer in cities- similar to Indianapolis a few weeks back, hard to go outdoors during the day. North Island of NZ is much more temperate. The South Island gets snow in winter. Christchurch gets hot dry summers and cold dry winters with snow.

The NZ$ is about 0.45$US. NZ is a great place to visit for this reason. For example, the Americas Cup being held in Auckland's Harbour will prove an affordable once-in-a-lifetime experience for any of you who want to come over and watch ultra-advanced yachts using the best technology affordable by Larry Ellison and other billionaires, competing for the olde trophy. Starts in ? november 2002- at least the challenger series (for the Loius Vuitton Cup) does. For NZ'ers going in the other direction it's a lot harder unless they have overseas income. Your History Professor friend is correct.

I'm too unfit to fly anything but Business Class these days but I can fly United Business class Auckland-LA-Chicago-Grand Rapids-Chicago-London(UK)-LA-Auckland for about US$3000. I agree that internal US flights are shockingly expensive as are NZ prices unless you hit www.airnewzealand.co.nz and book directly (subtle hint).

Regards

JR