What a great place NZ is! Each town is only 1 1/2 hours from each other and each town holds a whole new set of adventures.
The trip went like this:
Tennis in Auckland
Yachting & rubber ducking and exploring Rangitoto island in Auckland harbour
Rugby night in Orewa
Icecream and theatres in Warkworth
Hotpools and waterslides in Waiwera
Digging our own hot pools on Hot Water Beach at Hahei
Birthday party at a friend's restaurant and golf at Mt Maunganui
Zorb, Luge & Gondola at Rotorua
Rugby and blaster cars in Hamilton.
I was hoping to put my feet up and do a bit of writing... silly me.
One thing that did disappoint me is that last time I filled a trolly full of groceries in NZ it came to $400 and that wasn't too bad because it included loads of specialty cheeses, smoked salmon, and mussels that were cheaper than in Aus. This time it was still $400 but all the dairy was more expensive than in Aus (thanks to some Fonterra bastards), even the stuff they import to Aus was more expensive! Seafood had also gone up. The things that were cheaper than they were in Aus were of poor quality.
Apparently in the push for cheaper groceries a whole country now find themselves without a decent peanut butter on their shelves. They can choose from several types of peanut butter but they are all grown and processed in China, and I'm not sure how they managed to stuff up a product with only three ingredients (traditionally PB in NZ never had sugar), but they have (and now every brand of chinese peanut butter has sugar added as well). Still at only $8.00 a kilo, you can't expect too much.
Many consumers have demanded peanut butter grown and produced in Aus at any price rather than continue with Chinese PB and apparently Sanitarium are coming to their rescue. Hang on... aren't Sanitarium owned by the US?
Anyone who has read Dick Smith's speech about foreign products will now be wondering how long it will take for Australians to be forced into eating Chinese PB despite Aus having perfect peanut raising weather. Don't worry tho, there's only four ingredients and none of them need painting.
According to Dick Smith Foods ( www.dicksmithfoods.com.au ):
CAN’T FIND OUR PRODUCTS IN YOUR SUPERMARKET?
- THIS COULD BE THE REASON
Over the past 36 months major changes have occurred as the two major food retailers in Australia move towards reducing the range of all products they offer customers. This is so they can maximize their profits and return to their shareholders.
One of the instigations of this change is the foreign owned (German) Aldi company. They offer lower prices by offering a very limited range and the big supermarkets will have to follow or go broke.
This policy, which is being adopted by both Coles and Woolworths (who together have nearly 80% of the market place) is to free up supermarket shelf space to allow for the introduction of their own private label range. In effect it is proposed to limit consumer choice across all products sold. For example the jam or tomato sauce category will include their two top selling products plus a range of Coles or Woolworths branded products.
The majority of the Coles and Woolworths private label products are sourced from overseas using significantly cheaper labour and where the agricultural and manufacturing standards and regulations are not nearly as strict as they are in Australia. We expect the number of overseas sourced products to increase even further in coming years as Coles and Woolworths find other supply sources.
The effect of this policy is creating major difficulties for all the Australian owned manufacturers, including those that produce our products, to the point where we have been struggling to keep a large proportion of our product range available on supermarket shelves for our loyal customers to purchase.
Whilst we will continue to strenuously fight for Australian owned and made products to remain available on supermarket shelves, it will be extremely difficult to compete with the wealthy multi-national companies and the increasing power and domination being exercised by the major retailers.
Please assist us in our fight to save the small number of Australian owned food manufacturing businesses which still exist by asking your local Supermarket Manager to stock our products.Haven't I been complaining about the lack of products? After seeing an NZ grocery store, I'm a bit wary of where this is all headed... that and I'm sick of being offered up the same sugary substances as sauces from Kraft Praise and the Supermarket brand, knowing they all come out of the same US owned factory. Where have all the good sauces gone?
I already buy very locally produced bread, juice, dairy and eggs via the milkman at www.aussiefarmers.com.au.
And now I've found this site: www.onlyoz.com.au
They offer this little story:
He wonders why he can't find a good paying job in Australia...
Joe Smith started the day early, having set his alarm clock (MADE IN JAPAN) for 6am. While his coffee pot (MADE IN CHINA) was perking, he shaved with his electric razor (MADE IN HONG KONG). He put on a dress shirt (MADE IN SRI LANKA), DESIGNER JEANS (MADE IN SINGAPORE) and tennis shoes (MADE IN KOREA).
After cooking his breakfast in his new electric skillet (MADE IN INDIA) he sat down with his calculator (MADE IN MEXICO) to see how much money he could spend today. After setting his watch (MADE IN TAIWAN) to the radio (MADE IN INDIA) he got in his car (MADE IN GERMANY) and continued his search for a good paying Australian job.
At the end of yet another discouraging and fruitless day, Joe decided to relax for a while. He put on his sandals (MADE IN BRAZIL) pored himself a glass of wine (MADE IN FRANCE) and turned on his TV (MADE IN INDONESIA), and then wondered why he can't find a good paying job in Australia...I suppose you could be cynical and say why pay slightly more, or it's marketing jingoism, or even, if you were very naive, say the govt will step in before it gets too bad, but I've already had enough of my local supermarkets. I can't stand products made by Kraft or Masterfoods, sugar and cornsyrup should not appear in the top four ingredients on EVERY food they produce. Time to put myself out and go further afeild in search of decent local foods.
