Good advice above. If you are using a long zoom you need a fast shutter spead to go with it otherwise you get camera shake. As a general rule if you need a minimum of the focal length as the shutter speed. So if you zoom to 150mm you need a shutter speed of 1/200th second, if you use a wider shot like 30mm you can get away with a slower shutter speed of say 1/30th second, if you have a steady hand. So if you that Fuji with its 720mm telephoto end you will need a shutter speed of 1/750 and with that lense not letting in much light through you will need a very bright day to get decent pictures. Although these days a lot of cameras have some sort of image stablization to prevent this camera shake.
With high mega pixels on small sensors you will get a lot of 'noise' on the higher ISO settings.
Apologies if this is getting too technical.
I've been to NZ, sadly before I got a digital camera, so used using up film at a fair old rate. Allow a decent amount of money for memory cards so you can take a lot of photos. As you are going for 6 months, I guess you will need of download and write a copy to disc/memory stick or something.
Try to buy a camera using AA type batteries and buy some rechargeables. If you drain a camera specific non type AA battery and 2nd battery, assuming you buy one, you cant use the camera. If you buy a camera using AA batteries you might be able to buy normal non rechargable batteries.
I think there are some knock proof/showerproof/waterproof cameras on the market. As its NZ, and there are loads of outdoor activities to go on, (not to mention the weather) you might want to go for one of those. You could do a rafting or canoe trip and stuff it under your life jacket and pull it out for a quick picture. I had to faff around with a waterproof container for my compact camera at the time and probably missed a few decent shots.
Like this one maybe.
http://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy-olympus-tough-tg-610-black-digital-camera/p1523697No idea how it actually peforms, and fails on battery type and the slowest shutter speed is only 1/4. That night shot in Gent in the April competition had a slower shutter speed than that I reckon, I rested the camera on a bridge and used the self timer.
Personally, I've gone for Canon in the past as I like the way they handle. I had a Powershot A620 for years, it had automatic features plus totally manual over-rides which I like. It also has a close focus of 2cm which is handy for bugs and close up stuff. When the screen on that expired after 6 years, it was well used and I wasnt
that careful with it, I got another Canon camera.
I'll have a look around at whats on the market and say which is the one I'd buy. If another 5 people do this, you will probably get 6 to choose from