In reply to Rocknast:
It depends where you are travelling to and for how long. Unfortunately the guidebooks are fairly variable in NZ and a lot are out of print. Have a look around the internet for ideas on where you want to go. a good place to start is the UKC article giving an overview by fiend:
http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=24 .
North island has just got a new rock deluxe guide which covers a wide area but the south island version is out of print (but was a great overview)
The south island rock guide is 'ok' in paynes ford there is a small guide leaflet you can buy when there to cover the area. castle hill, queenstown and wanaka all have separate guidebooks and are worthwile only if you are spending enough time there. They are all available locally.
Places like Dunedin and a few other places have online topos on climbnz.org.nz
For mountaineering the New Zealand alpine club guides are good.
normally with a bit of research 9reading old posts on UKC) you can have a good idea where you are planning to climb then you can look at where to get the information of what there is to climb
hope this helps
