Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific - Christmas and New Year - but where ??

Putting the finishing touches to our RTW trip, and trying to decide where to spend Christmas and New Year. We will be spending July/August in Mexico and Cuba, September in Ecuador (Galapagos/Andes/jungle), and then October/November/December (?) overlanding through Brazil/Argentina/Chile.

We are then travelling Easter Island - Tahiti - Auckland - Brisbane, and overland up the coast to Cairns and Port Douglas.

We think it's probably best to reserve flights early rather than late (given that it's a three-times-a-week services SCl-IPC-PPT), so we're tyring to decide where to spend Christmas and New Year.

Given that I'm travelling with my wife, we're early thirties, and this is a last, pre-children adventure (and that we're on a budget, so spending a fortnight in an over-water bungalow on Bora Bora isn't realistic), does anyone have any suggestions ?

ta
Stewie

You could spend it in Gisborne NZ, the first city in the world to see the sun each day. Otherwise a nice but sleepy little town. Presume they make an event out of New Year's Eve given this claim to fame (they certainly did for 2000). Of course other islands are earlier in the time zone but they don't have enough population to have a "city".

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Stewie Mac:
Given that I'm travelling with my wife, we're early thirties, and this is a last, pre-children adventure (and that we're on a budget, so spending a fortnight in an over-water bungalow on Bora Bora isn't realistic), does anyone have any suggestions ?</font>

Norfolk Island would be the first place that springs to mind for a nice quiet, romantic NYE celebreation without rugrats.

New Years in Edinborough, Scotland. They call it "Hogmanny", and it's a blast!

JP