I agree that the browser is clunky and email is painful on kindle even when using in the US. I did use my first gen kindle for gmail email on a short trip, when I did not want to take my laptop about 3 years ago.

I am trying to travel lighter than usual for this longer vacation. So, I was debating taking only the kindle intl 3g version and not the netbook or ipad for the very limited amount of email I would send and check while in NZ. But I had read on another site that the kindle browser did not work at all in NZ, so wanted confirmation whether that was even an option. (I am leaning to the netbook now, rather than getting a new sim card in NZ for the ipad and getting it registered.)

Thank you for the input!