  Current studies of the peculiar velocity flow field in the Local Universe are
limited by either the lack of detection or accurate photometry for galaxies at
low Galactic latitudes. The contribution to the dynamics of the Local Group of
the largely unknown mass distribution in this 'Zone of Avoidance' remains
controversial. We present here the results of a pilot project to obtain deep
near infrared (NIR) observations of galaxies detected in the systematic Parkes
deep HI survey of the ZoA - 578 galaxies with recession velocities out to 6000
km/s were observed with the 1.4m InfraRed Survey Facility SIRIUS camera
providing J, H and K_s imaging ~2 mag deeper than 2MASS. After
star-subtraction, the resulting isophotal magnitudes and inclinations of ZoA
galaxies are of sufficient accuracy (magnitude errors under 0.1 mag even at
high extinction) to ultimately be used to determine cosmic flow fields "in" the
ZoA via the NIR Tully-Fisher relation. We further used the observed NIR colours
to assess the ratio of the true extinction to the DIRBE/IRAS extinction deep
into the dust layers of the Milky Way. The derived ratio was found to be 0.87
across the HIZOA survey region with no significant variation with Galactic
latitude or longitude. This value is in excellent agreement with the completely
independently derived factor of 0.86 by Schlafly & Finkbeiner based on Sloan
data far away from the Milky Way.
