I have had a multitude of film, digital and video cameras over my extensive photography life (60 years). Never been more frustrated than trying to use the GoPro. Menu system is terrible, software is absolutely awful. Look at some other vendors.
Full screen with HUD was a feature in Aperture. Not available in Lightroom. Hit the H kew while in full screen mode in Aperture.
I did the migration shortly after Apple stopped supporting Aperture. A few things to keep in mind:
Only your original out of the camera images (in my case RAW) are copied to Lightroom. Your edits are not. Figure out how you are going to deal with this. I kept my legacy Aperture library of images in tact and created a duplicate (unedited) in Lightroom.
Lightroom is a powerful tool for managing your photo library. Do some research and decide how you are going to set up your catalogue before you input. (Personally, I store by Year>Month>Subject of Event or Shoot)
The only thing i really miss from Aperture is the full screen HUD feature.
New Zealand is not a small country so if you have an eight day time budget for both the north and south island, you will have to target perhaps two areas on each island and consider flying between destinations. We visited there for 45 days a couple of years ago and were hard pressed to hit all of the hi lights and spend some quality time "exploring" and taking photos. Forget trying to drive both islands. We did 6500 km on our tour with 95% of the time on roads that Lewis Hamilton would have difficulty in maintaining the speed limit!
Hotels/motels are mostly "mom & pop" operations with no recognizable chains except in the major cities. All of the ones we stayed in were good with friendly owners and good amenities. Usually you get a half kitchen which is handy for fixing breakfast and a lunch for on the road.
We used booking.com for most of our accommodations.
Recommendations:
South Island - TeAnu and Queenstown, Arthurs Pass and Franz Joseph Glacier. Forget Christchurch, still a disaster area.
North Island - Auckland is nice for a big city and is where you will probably arrive. North of there is the Bay of Islands, really nice area. A lot of folks are talking about Rotarura. Didn't impress me.
For photos, check out my blogs of north and south island
https://www.flickr.com/photos/64797692@N02/albums/72157659041214859https://www.flickr.com/photos/64797692@N02/albums/72157658240760350
I would remove the distracting date stamp.
Have used Kijiji several times in Canada. Use same precautions as with Craig's list in US.
I live in Niagara-on-the-Lake and have spent thirty two years living in the area and a few years of my working career responsible for the water flow over the falls. From the Canadian side, you can get some sunrise pictures over the falls, weather permitting. There are new high intensity LED lights illuminating the falls at night. There are also nightly fireworks displays (check the schedule). You will need a tripod for this. The Hornblower tour boats give a good up-close view of the falls. As mentioned by a lot of the others, be prepared for spray protection even along the main walkways. You can take photos from the Rainbow Bridge - you will need your passport to get off the bridge. Drive the Niagara Parkway to Niagara-on-the-Lake. Lots of good sights and photo ops along the way. Sip some wine and have a great meal in one of the many restaurants. Avoid Clifton Hill and the Wax Museums :)