Although we've already purchased a travel guide for Oz & NZ, we were looking for something more specific regarding our main goal for New Zealand - Trekking. Thankfully, Lonely Planet has a truly staggering arsenal of books just about any subject (for example there's a guide for fishing in New Zealand, now ain't that universally useful ? :-)) and we ran into "Tramping in New Zealand" - just what we needed.
If you wonder what "tramping" means, Wikipedia defines it as "a commonly used New Zealand term for a hike of at least one overnight stay in the outdoors". Synonyms for tramping are: backpacking, trekking and bushwalking (Australian term).
Anyway, the book describes the 52 most popular tramps in New Zealand. Each tramp is presented in detail, with maps, important locations, special equipment and per-day guides. The author also emphasizes the most interesting points in the tramps, and provides suggestions for detours and "side walks" to extend a tramp, where possible.
The best part of the book, in my opinion, is the general information for the tramper. Spread on almost 40 pages, it is packed with useful information on maps, useful organizations, shops, weather, food, clothing, equipment, health and safety. These sections are very important to read, especially for people with no previous experience of tramping a several day long route.
I think I'll have a more detailed impression of the book when we actually use it in New Zealand. For now I can say I enjoyed reading it, and that it's a good information source about New Zealand tramping.
Eli Bendersky's website