The equivalent of 36-105mm on a full frame camera. Good focal length range for landscapes and most general photography, though not as wide as it could be. Covers the whole range of preferred portrait focal lengths. Wildlife, only if they are large or not very wild. If at some point, you feel a bit restricted on the wide end, consider adding the 12-24mm super-wide zoom, a lens I find very useful.

An alternative to consider for your needs, would be the 18-200m VR. VR is a great aid in getting sharp pictures hand-held at much lower than normal shutter speeds. The range in full-frame terms is 27-300mm, which covers just about everything including wild life. The downside is that it is much slower than the f-2.8, so you will be needing to use higher ISO settings to get higher shutter speeds needed. This is offset by its VR, which helps subdue camera motion, though has no effect on subject motion. The D300 is said to provide at least a gain of 1.0EV and perhaps more over the D200 which also offsets the slowness of the lens without adding excessive noise.

With VR, I was doing some real available darkness shooting with it over the past couple of weeks and getting remarkably sharp pictures in the quarter second range indoors. At the long end, it is at its best around f-11, but does produce nice results even wide open. Fine for general use. I expect the 24-70mm would have the edge for critical, shooting off a tripod sharpness, but it lacks the all around versatility of this lens.

Don't forget that there are also superb single focal length primes. The 35mm f-1.4 and f-2.0 make stunningly sharp normal lenses and the f-1.4 and f-1.8 50mm lenses are reasonably priced for available light and portraits. These should be considered as needed as supplements to a general purpose zoom like the 18-200mm VR. Use them for contemplative photography when you can take the time to shoot off a tripod for ultimate sharpness, or hand-held in the dimmest of light. Acquire them as you feel the need.

My kit is the 12-24mm and the 18-200mm zooms with my old manual AI-S lenses in a range of prime focal lengths. Ultimately versatile. The manual lenses work just fine on the D200, and are available used at very attractive prices. Metering is the same as the current DX lenses, and I really don't miss autofocus when using them. You are buying into an ultimately flexible system.