New Zealand Lens Choice

In general I disagree with the notion that panoramic landscapes mean wide angle lenses. Wide angle lenses are for when you can get up close and have interesting stuff in the foreground as well as the background. The fact is you'll need a whole range of lenses to cover the NZ landscape, starting from wides up to about 135mm or so.

There is one thing that has hardly been mentioned: New Zealand is bird paradise. The place is crawling with them, including Penguins. There are a couple of places on the east coast of the south island where you can see little blue penguins and yellow eye penguins. If memory serves one such place is called Timaru. You might even see little blue penguins right in the waterfront area of Wellington. They come home to the rocks in the evening.

The bottom line is you will be very sad if you don't include a telephoto lens of at least 200mm. A lot of these high-profile celebrity birds can only be seen in captivity, but even so, you need a decent telephoto for them. Kiwis, and the penguins too are nocturnal, so be prepared for low light photos and absolutely no flash is allowed. And don't embarrass us - please keep your camera in silent mode, turn off all beeps and shutter noises around these creatures.

Be sure to visit Zealandia in Wellington.

One more thing: I hope you are aware that you are visiting New Zealand in the dead of winter. I know you will thoroughly enjoy your visit, but I can tell you right now that you are going to come home with a new definition of the word "cold". Also, take weather protection for your gear. That reminds me - take bird protection too. New Zealand is home to a parrot called a Kia. These are HIGHLY INTELLIGENT, inquisitive and destructive birds. They will strip the wiper blades from your car and they know how to open backpacks and they can spot tourists from 10 miles away. They are completely awesome to watch but I'm not kidding at all, they will destroy anything and everything they can get their hands on.

PS My lens numbers are in "full frame" terms.

PPS Fun factoid: New Zealand's only native mammal is a bat.