I was a last minute add to a crew that's heading to Wellington to put on a play in Feb. I managed to get an early flight on their dime to put me into NZ two days early. I've never been to the southern hemisphere before, let alone the south pacific (i'm a new yorker).

I'm considering renting a car and just driving to the middle of the North Island to find some landscapes to take photos. My quick 15 minutes of research for interesting places just shows me areas around Auckland and down in the South Island, which I think are too far for me to travel with only 48 hours. I'm also on a pretty tight budget, this company is not paying me a real paycheck, just a per diem and airfare.

Anybody have any pointers? I'm considering Taranaki Falls and Mount Ruapehu. I really really wanted to go see the glow worm caves but I think that's out of reach.

I'm bringing a 4x5 with mostly BW, a pano 35mm, and a dslr just in case.