Welcome, good luck on your hike and have fun!

You've already gotten great advice on the pack. As far as sleeping bags, I second Western Mountaineering for bags if you can afford them. Down is lighter and more compactable than synthetic fills. Some people like the Cats Meow and some really don't. I believe MacPac is available where you are and is the equivilent of REI for us in the states. Often you can get a decent down bag from REI or someplace similar. Laufama also gets good reviews as an inexpensive down bag of decent quality. I've never used one so I can't confirm that.

For food look at trailcooking.com and onepanwonders.com. You can make much better tasting food with their recipies than freeze dried and it costs less too.

Finally, read the posts on backpackinglight.com There are a bunch of people from Australia and New Zealand who post there.