New Zealand - when to go & when to buy tix

[belboid]

me & mrs b are (if all goes to plan) off for three weeks or so towards the end of next year. We are in the lucky position of having some friends living in Auckland, & some in Wellington, so will be off to see both at some point, nipping down to South Island too, hopefully. Sometime between September and Christmas is our plan, but haven't really thought about it further than that yet.

So, anyone have an idea about what the 'best' time to go would be? Would it really make much difference (in terms of weather and available activities, and of cost) whatever time we went?

And when would be a good time to actually buy the ticket, so we'd get it cheapest. We can actually afford it at the moment, so it seems almost tempting to get it paid for and done, but I suspect that it would actually be a pretty expensive ticket at the moment, and it would be better to wait, it's not as if they're going to sell out.

Any help/info appreciated, ta muchly.

[Fuzzy]

i'd hazard a guess the closer to christmas that you left buying a ticket the more expensive it would cost. its high season over there at that time so the sooner you got it the better i reckon. i paid over 800 quid flying to oz over christmas time a couple of years back so i'm assuming the same would apply for new zealand as well.

[belboid]

at a quick glance, it seemed like unless we would be going over christmas itself, prices seemed pretty much the same (£800-850). The only cheapish ones were going in the next couple of weeks, but I assume that's because of their immediacy, not the time of year.

[Andy the Don]

Take advantage & stop off at one of the South Sea islands. We spent 5 days on the Cook Islands (Raratonga) & it was wonderful, a heaven on earth, very recommended.

We stayed here..

http://www.kkabanas.co.ck/

[belboid]

mmm, looks nice...I'm quite into the idea of stopping of fin Korea on the way at the mo...