Thanks jrk.

I have looked into all the options now, and the cheapest still seems to be to fly into Alice, so I have booked everyhting. I found a site (travelnow.com) that had some specials on car rentals through various companies, and I managed to get a cheapish deal on a full-sized car from Budget that included unlimited kms. The only concern I have is that the final confirmation included no information about the unlimited kms, so I will follow that up with both companies to be sure.

I also put in a booking at the Outback Pioneeer, so hopefully I'll find out later today if there are rooms available. I suspect it should be fine given the time of year, but we'll see.

Thanks again for the help lads