Carisbrooke is a well worth stop over, I hope Charlie is still alive! he runs a great minibus tour and is a wealth of knowledge.
Last time I saw him was in August 09 and he was very much alive ! Still doing the minibus tours, but lives in town now, his son runs the station.
As for choice of a/c - I'd say definitely the 182, especially if you intend to fly into strips like Carisbrooke. On a hot day (not really unknown out there
) an Archer might struggle. Fuel also being a consideration, as Ando1Bar says. If you can find a long-range 182 and can tanker fuel into places like Birdsville (think I paid 2,70 there last year
) you'll have more beer money
