Using the internet while on the road.

2Degrees Pre Paid. You can buy data in very cost effective portions as and when you need it. Check out their web page.

I have been on telecoms 4gb data plan on my mobile for 18 months now. $79.99 a month. Pretty unhappy about it, they advertise it as mobile broadband but sometimes Im down to 20kb/sec which is just a joke. Telecom have told me this is normal when there is a lot of load on the network and they are not doing anything to fix it.

Annoyingly my folks didn't load theres for their last tour of NZ or I could have given you a lot better answer.
That said it should be pretty good, as the broadband we are talking about here is the 2Degrees nationwide stuff, which means in theory it should be as good as vodafones. given it uses their network when not in a major centre.

If your mate is just using the inernet at home (assuming here no dsl) as opposed to actually travelling. It might pay to check in case there is a local wifi provider.

For example here in Tauranga area we have two companies that specialise in bringing the internet to rural areas using long distance wifi connections. Its dearer to set up but the speed is really good and ongoing costs very low, especially if you combine it with a voip service.

broadband is a VERY broad term in this country

Do you want full size or a 10" netbook!
If full size you will need to go secondhand to get anything that will be built properly.

BTW, if it was me I would be buying a $250 secondhand thinkpad for the surfing and then putting the rest towards building a mythbox for the media rather than stuffing around with the laptop and LCD.

You may not need to add much or any to what you have left over from the laptop depending on what PC bits you have lying around to build the mythbox.

BTW Paps, perhaps flick me an email. This might be a good one to talk about on the phone if you are keen on a mythbox, that way we can suss out exactly what you have got and what you are doing and want to achieve. I also may have some cheap stuff for you. Up to you though no pressure.