Thanks LMo thats very sweet of you.

If you are flying all the way to the Southern Hemisphere you might as well visit both Australia and New Zealand (won't cost you that much more if you get a round the world trip). Some tourists manage to do most of NZ in two weeks in a rental car. You can ferry the car between the islands. That is packing it in tight, though. You might like to just do the South Island in that time or take some more time, even.

People typically want to visit the Great Barrier Reef, Ayers Rock, and Alice Springs in Australia. They are all becomming tourist traps, though. As is Queenstown and Rotorua and Taupo in NZ. Australia is a much bigger place (about the same size as the US less Alaska) but most of the middle is a desert. I really don't think you would want to road trip it. It is about 10 hours from Brisbane to Sydney, for example. Local flights would be the way to go and tour busses if you want to see the interrior. Don't go driving into the interior in a rental... The outback can be very rugged and I'd worry about safety in the Northern Territory... You wouldn't want to break down in a car by yourself hours away from where anybody can get to you... There is a film about that...