Agreed, one of the best on the market is the Lumix FZ150. Massive zoom range, great quality for this type of camera. I've used previous versions of the FZ in the past - FZ10, FZ28, and they really are lovely cameras. If you can stump ( no pun intended ) up the coin, the FZ150 will do what you need.
Others to think about, would be the Fuji HS30, Canon PowerShot SX40, Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX100V, Nikon CoolPix P510