NZ Products

So a lot of people have been asking us about differences between food, products, prices, etc. Here are some of our observations.

A lot of the snack foods are really different, especially the chips. No tortilla chips or doritos but plently of meat flavored chips - chicken flavored chips, bacon flavored chips, hamburger flavored chips. And they are really popular - we went to a bbq and the only type of chips they had were chicken flavored chips. The native New Zealanders were surprised that everyone didn't have meat flavored chips!
Speaking of bbqs, the food was awesome - sausages, chicken, ribs, and lamb. It was great! They do have burgers and dogs as well, but their ketchup is basically watered down tomato sauce, and it is pretty bad. It took a while to find some Heinz from the store!
They have a lot of things that are exactly the same as in the US, but with different names. One of our favorites is Rice Bubbles (Rice Crispies):
They also have Kellogg's Sultana Bran, and Hungry Jack's in Australia. Apparently they couldn't call it Burger King due to some copyright issue.
The other things I miss the most are deli turkey and gatorade (which they do have in Australia and I bring home a few bottles for us). Eric and I both miss mexican food a lot - it isn't very good in the restaurants and there are no free chips and salsa - unacceptable! Dad brought us over 2 bags of tostitos when he came and we are saving them for a glorious mexican feast.
So what is better? They have a great drink called L&P, basically a lemon soda, which Eric is all about. Eric also loves the fish and chips (he says the price of a flight is worth it just for the fish and chips) and the sushi. All of the asian and indian food is really delicious - and they have these foodcourts with tons of asian places for super cheap (not exactly like the foodcourt at the mall!). They love their meat pies. Dairy products, especially cheese and ice cream, are excellent. I don't think I have ever seen people more into ice cream than Kiwis! Tip Top and Deep South are the main brands.
As for prices, it is hard to compare just by the exchange rate b/c we are making $NZ now, but here are our general observations: gas is a lot more expensive ($4/gal is nothing!), as well as clothing and shoes. Restaurants are about the same, fresh produce and seafood is a lot cheaper (we've gotten shrimp skewers for NZ$0.99 each). Housing is cheaper, books are more expensive, beer is pricey (and they do have a lot of great local brews) but wine is cheap. The local supermarkets have a lot of Wine Weeks with seriously discounted prices: NZ$5-15 for good bottles of wine. But when visitors come over, everything will seem nice and cheap with a strong US dollar!
Well, we are off to the Coromandel Peninsula for the weekend, so hopefully we'll have some good pics of that soon! Hope everyone is doing well!

Dad's Visit - March 13-15, 2009

We had out first visitor! My Dad had some meetings in Sydney for work next week, so he came early and visited us this weekend. I took friday afternoon off from work, and we wandered around town, visiting the Auckland Domain and the Sky Tower. Eric and I took Dad out for a belated birthday dinner at Cafe Limon down on the water - great food and water views (and we heard UMD actually won a game in the ACC tourney so that improved our moods!)
On saturday we took the ferry over to Waiheke Island, known for its beautiful beaches and excellent wineries. Unfortunately, it was pretty chilly and rained on and off, but we made the best of it! We went on a short hike in the morning along Church Bay on the west side of the island, with great views of downtown Auckland in the distance and Rangitoto Island (a volcanic island formed about 600 yrs ago, you can see it in the background below).
We had lunch along Onetangi Bay and then drove around the east side of the island. The rain let up again in the afternoon and we went to Te Whau Winery, one of the best wineries on the island, and had a tasting.
Before catching the ferry back to Auckland, we did another short hike in the Whakanewha Regional Park, and explored Half Moon Bay at low tide - you could walk out over 100m from the shore.
Sunday was Dad's last day, and luckily we woke up to clear blue skies! We decided to take him to one of our new favorite beaches, Phia Beach on the west coast.
It is a steep and windy beach to get to but well worth it. The waves are huge and the sand is soft and black. They were having a surfing competition and we saw a lot of great rides. However, I think the bigger entertainment was watching the lifeguard club training for kids as young as 5. Not sure what leap frog has to do with life saving but some of it was pretty amusing.
Here's Eric and I with Lion Rock in the background. You can hike about halfway up Lion Rock for some great views.
We dropped Dad off at the airport that afternoon. We were glad he got at least one day of sunshine, but we wish he could have stayed longer! It was great to see a familiar face and we can't wait for more visitors!

February 2009

We haven't been very good about posting lately! So I'll try to just hit the recent highlights. In mid February I went to Melbourne for a work conference. The conference was really good, but the best part was getting to seeing Melbourne - running along the river in the morning, dining out at great restaurants (paid for by work is always a plus!), and wandering around town after the conference each night. One of the main highlights was a private tour of the Melbourne aquarium, and their new penguin exhibit. The younger penguins were very inquisitive and waddled over to the glass when they saw us coming, and then would walk back and forth checking us all out.
I also really liked the sea dragons (never even knew there were such fish!) but apparently they live off of the southern coast of Australia.
I have to go back for another meeting next week and I am really excited about that.
The weekend after, Eric and I joined the PDP team for the Round Taupo Relay Race. Lake Taupo is the biggest lake in Australia/NZ, and it is basically the crater of a volcanic explosion in 186AD (Eric happened to be looking it up in a travel book, haha). It is 239 sq miles, and the relay race was about 160km. Here is a picture of Eric during his leg of the race (he actually had a pretty scenic view with the lake on one side, but not much shoulder to run on and the road was not closed for the race). It was cloudy and drizzly for most of the legs, but the sun decided to come out and roast Eric on his leg - but he did great!
After the race, some of our team went for a swim in the lake. One of our team members knew a certain part of the lake with geothermal activity beneath it; while we were in the water we dug our feet into the sand and it was so hot! There was a big bbq for our whole team that evening; the Kiwi bbq consists of lamb, steak, sausages, and ribs - no complaints from us!
At the end of February, we went to the Auckland Cup horse race. They dress up here as well but the girls wear hats with feathers, not wide brims. We won about $12, but the races were really good. The big $2.2 million race was decided by a photo finish (and then the winning horse bucked off his jockey, who broke his heel, and had to be brought out in a wheelchair to accept his prize). Exciting day at the races!