Got my new camera at last. Originally I was going to get an SLR but after a bit of discussion and research I opted for a "superzoom" instead. Sensor quality isn't quite as good but I don't have to worry about switching lenses (handy for when I'm in the middle of taking distance shots and realize a penguin has got curious and come in close). I finally settled on the Panasonic FZ150. At 24x optical (equivalent to 600mm) it's not the biggest zoom on the market but it should work for everything I want and gets good reviews compared to other superzooms. Also I can always get a teleconverter if I want extra reach. I've got 2 months left to learn all the controls.

I've also bought myself a cheap second hand laptop on eBay. I've upped the hard drive so I can use it to backup my photos while I'm away. Particularly when I don't have access to wifi. I'm still debating memory cards. I like the idea of keeping the pics on the cards until I can work with them (may not be till I get home). I've got one 8gb card to play with now and ordered 15 of the 4gb ones. I like smaller ones cause if the card fails I don't lose as many images. I have the ability to shoot in both RAW and JPEG on the new camera though which means I'll only get about 200 shots on each card. Sounds a lot but not when you consider this is a 4 month trip of a lifetime!!