Antipodean reading

I'm going to Australia and New Zealand for a month or so in March and right now we're in the middle of quite a large and complex operation of sorting out where to go, booking flights and finding accommodation. Anyway, to the point. I always like to try to read a couple of books that originate from, or are about, the country I'm visiting. So has anyone got any suggestions for Antipodean reading? It could be fiction or non-fiction and food-related or history books are always good.

Also if anyone has any suggestions for places to stay in the Hunter Valley or Blue Mountains then that would be most helpful.

Update: And, of course, I should have thought of the wonderful Daunt Books on Marylebone who include guides, novels and non-fiction arranged by country. They had the not-available-at-Amazon "The Future Eaters", as recommended by Angus