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After having toured aussie wineries (can't say anything about New Zealand, haven't had them), I have to say their wines are some of the worst I've had. The wineries were unpleasant, and their wines were so acidic and unbalanced to flavor that they were quite unpalatable. It's no wonder they can ship that crap to America and sell it for roughly $6 a bottle. They sell it cheaper here than you can buy it in Australia, after shipping it half way around the world. It's no wonder that the best wine tasting I had in Australia was at a local fair, that was selling premium European wines. Hard to beat a real German Riesling or Gewurstraminar when you've had that crap they pass of as a Riesling in Australia. It's hard to turn down an Italian Syrah, when you've just drank some bitter paint thinner called an aussie Shiraz. Had an Italian Cab Sav there that knocked my socks off, which was much better than the aussie cab savs that just made the skin dissolve off of my tongue. I'm sure there is good wine made in Australia, but from my large sampling, they were far and few between. I'm used to going to wineries where I have a hard time deciding what not to buy, because all the wines are so good. In australia, it was difficult just finding a winery that had a wine worth buying.
Edit:
I must reply to Mustang in saying that France would not have wines if not for the American hearty root stock. And the old world French style wines are highly overrated, and sell more by old world reputation, and not by new world quality. They have become complacent by thinking their grapes are far superior and can not keep up with the modern techniques and varietels. As for Australia making their wines to strict French control, that would make sense, if Australia's climate, soil, and growing regions were similar to that of France, but they are not. However, the grapes make really unbalanced wines, and most of the wineries don't do anything to combat this. It is made even worse by using pure varietel wines, instead of blending their wines to add some balance. I must say, the one place that I did like all of the wines in Australia was at a monastary. Their wines were made of grapes that grew well in that area, and they knew how to blend the wines for perfect balance. I guess God new something more about wine making than the French did.
Final Edit: I just want to point out, that people from Australia think they have great wines, because thats all they can really get there, the liquor stores don't sell any other type for the most part. When Aussie wines are all you can get, then yeah, they probably taste pretty good. But remember, they also eat Vegemite there and think it is really good. Any sane person can agree that vegemite is not a tasty treet.
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