Hello Margaret
I have been on the Hong Kong-New Zealand tour January 2012... Amazing tour I must say, our weather in Hong Kong was not good but you have no control of the weather. The Newzealand tour is on the go,to see all the sights that you can in the time your there. The scenery is stunningly beautiful.
OK regarding money, this is a hard one to answer to be honest, as every ones budget is different, when we got the final itinary I budgeted for all the optional flights helicopters and sea plane,as it was ,due to the weather I only managed the 1 helicopter flight to the Franz Joseph which was very good. I also did In fact buy many things along the way as I will not be gong back there. I ate in more of the hotels for evening meals than I would normally, due to the fact of long days and lots of travelling so I just wanted to have a meal on site, with out trawling around finding somewhere so these can work out dearer, but in the whole they were not much more.
I think what I am trying to say is, take all the money you can!!!! Which is what I did I did I fact come back with a fair bit to bank as I didn't/couldn't do all the flights.
Also I did have to put about £100 onto credit card for things we did in Hong Kong that was not listed on final documents, so I took very littl Hong Kong money..
You will have a great time, if I can help with anything else just let me know.
Cindy