I bought this book for a non-birding trip to New Zealand and it was very helpful. The descriptions are good and the photos adequate (you can't really expect more photos in a compact book of this type). The notes on where the birds can be found were especially helpful. The book seems very up to date. It's a good size for toting about.
The index is not great, and I wish there were more non-native species included (to help confirm that what I was seeing was in fact a non-native bird). But on the whole I was very happy with it.