clipperton

got a bit of a plan to do 3 weeks in the south island of new zealand (aiming to do a "u" from hokitika down to queenstown then up to christchurch) in early december with a bunch of complete touring novices (myself included) and was hoping to get a little advice on a few tihngs.

first thing is to do with nz itself and the wind there in particular. everything i've looked at suggests that the winds blow out of the n/nw. bearing in mind that most of the fun of the south island seems to be concentrated down the west coast does that mean that it's recommended to ride south down starting from somewhere like hokitika rather than trying to finish by riding north up there? bearing in mind that we're all novices i'm a little concerned that that coast might be a little too "rugged" as an introduction.

second question is more of a general touring bike question - i've got an '07 520 and have had major wheel problems. i've recently taken delivery of a warranty replacement rear wheel (bit of a stuff up though - it's 32 spoke instead of 36. grrr.) but from some of the stuff i read on here it almost seems worthwhile keeping a spare "touring rear wheel" with 40 spokes. does this sound worth the hassle? i haven't the faintest about wheel trueing but from some of the stuff written it sounds as though by having a different spoke count one needs to use different spokes. am i reading that right? weight is of no consequence as speed is of no consequence.

last question is a bit of a brainwave and perhaps more of a general camping question with specific nz interest. apparently the sandflies there are enough to drive one batty. as there is likely to be 5 or 6 or possibly even 8 of us traipsing around i has thought to make a portable mosquito netting canopy by getting a big sheet (say 6 metres square) of the stuff, putting 4 connecting points in the "centre" and tent peg holes around the outside so that we can throw some ropes/strings/fishing wire into the trees to suspend it above our cooking/sitting/hanging out area using tent pegs around the bottom to pull the "walls" outwards. anybody done/seen anything similar or can think of any obvious pitfalls that an avowed novice might have missed? that stuff folds down to nothigna nd weighs less - i had thought that perhaps it would roll into an old sleeping bag bag - about 1ft x 1.75ft or so.

any feedback would be greatly appreciated. cheers.