What areas /cities will you be visiting to help plan your tour
what airport are you landing at helps.
Are you on a gliding tour or a tourist with a bit of gliding thrown in.
I live in the upper north Island and can advise in detail on those
parts of the country.
Bruce Hoult another regular on RAS lives in the lower half of
the North Island and can advise in detail in those areas.
I know a number of South Island pilots lurk on the NG and will
probably pitch in to give you the info you need.
First up goto HTTP://WWW.gliding.co.nz and get a feel for
the general areas and terrain.
The weather at that time of year is generally quite variable and coming up
to equinox so late november is usually quite windy.With all the ridges and
hills this helps more than hinders
If you are going to go cross country I will repeat an observation by
George Moffatt when he was here,
In New Zealand you have to "change gear" every 20-30 kms as with the
changing terrain and the sea influence all around the airmass
characteristics
change so your techniques have to change or you landout
As to flying here ,not a problem as the "license system "is similar to the
UK
in that you will need your logbook and license to show the senior
instructor
on the field ,you will do a checkride /area check and proceed from
there.
Apart from 3-4 bigger clubs with 7 day operations most are smaller 20-40
members so generally only fly weekends but with prior contact do midweek.
Get multiple contact phone numbers for each site and work through those
numbers in the day/'s before you arrive at each site
Majority of clubs winch launch so you need to get current on winching and
the emergency ropebreak procedures etc .
Note : here single stranded and multistranded steel, polypropolene rope are
all used so slight variences in launch technique are required.
Email me or others listed on the website and we will help your trip
planning.
gary

wrote in message
oups.com...
Will be in NZ in November for a couple of weeks, and would like to fly
there for a few days. Questions 1) Besides my logbook and US-issued
pilot certificate, what else do I need there to be able to rent a
sailplane; 2) WHERE ELSE besides Omarama can one find decent flying
conditions. This would enable me to prepare a scenic itinerary as well
as allow flying.

Thanks in advance for any info.

Cheers, Charles