We’ve had to make several adjustments while we are here; some mental, some physical, and some financial. Usually they are related. Overall life here is more expensive than we planned. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if it’s just sticker shock and maybe after you do the exchange rate conversion and remember that all prices include taxes (around 12%), it isn’t always so bad. Our timing for exchange rates could have been better, the graph shows $US to $NZ. Low points are good for us and you can see that lately the NZ has almost been at record high levels relative to the dollar.
Since NZ imports a lot of stuff, this is good for them, but it exports a lot of stuff too and the wine industry for example is hurting. When we transfer $US to our bank account here, what shows up in our account here depends on that day’s exchange rate (and fees). The first time we transferred US$5000 we got NZ$6505, then next time we got NZ$6554. So 1 NZ$ costs us about $US.77 depending on the day. This means that when we go shopping we should discount the price we see by 23% to get our $US cost.
Gas is about US$5/gal. Some things we are used to are hard to find and expensive. For example tortillas (to make burritos) cost about NZ$1.20 each, and bagels about NZ$1.30 each. When you apply our exchange rate, that’s about US$.92 and US$1.00 each. Looking online at the Lowe’s Food Store in Holly Springs I can buy 5 bagels for US$1.79 or US$.36 each. I can get tortillas 10 for US$1.55 or US$.15 each. We’ve tried to adjust our eating habits. Of course we’re used to eating burritos as a way to save money. The Mexican food section is really small with only the “Old El Paso” Brand. I read the refried bean label and found out they are bulk shipped to Australia and then repackaged. That’s one freighter that I don’t want to hit a reef. Imagine an Exxon Valdez cleanup of refried beans.
The Asian food section, however, is bigger than home. We’ve been having Pad Thai and Green Curry (beef or chicken). We’re using stir frying as a way to make cheap meat edible. Comparing meat prices, lamb loin chips are US$6.99/lb in NZ, US$11.99/lb in the US. Ground beef is US$3.44/lb in NZ, US$2.99/lb in the US. Boneless chicken thighs are US$6.63/lb in NZ, US$2.79/lb in the US. Meat prices made us think about going more vegetarian, but going vegetarian in a country where potatoes, cabbage, and broccoli take up most of the produce section isn’t going to happen.
The lamb meat section is about the same size as the chicken, pork and beef sections of the grocery store. Given that they have 40 million sheep in this country (about the size of Colorado) and we haven’t seen a chicken or pig farm, it’s sort of surprising. We’ve had rack of lamb. Though it makes perfect sense when you think about it, it was sort of surprising to find out that “lamb” is really baby sheep, so these are little pieces of meat with tiny little ribs sticking up. I roasted the lamb and I’m ashamed to say that it was pretty good.
Karen even thought it was OK and she’s very susceptible to not being able to eat food if she can visualize it as an animal. Chicken nuggets in the shape of stars are OK, in the shape of chickens not OK. This means for example if we get a fish filet from the local “fish and chips” and the filet just happens to come out of the fryer in the shape of a fish, I’ll try to break it in half before Karen sees it. I can also use this power for evil, like the time we went to one of Ted Turner’s restaurants that serves buffalo and beef. Karen wanted a hamburger made of beef (you have to tell them this, or you get buffalo). While we were waiting for the order, I mentioned that I wasn’t sure that the waitress heard her specify beef. Karen couldn’t make herself even try the burger to guess which one it was, so I got two burgers that day. I wasn’t sure what it was either, but this doesn’t seem to bother me as much.
To try to save money I look for bargains. For example one day I saw minced (ground) beef patties a good deal cheaper that minced beef. So I bought them and some hamburger buns (buns/bagels are not pre-split). When we had them that night, it tasted weird. I then looked at the ingredients and meat was the first of several ingredients. The fillers and spices gave the meat a sort of vinegary taste. By the way, food labels here are not nearly as informative as in the states.
Despite this experience, I noticed that pre-made meat loaf was also a lot cheaper than minced beef and tried it. It looked nice, was covered in grated cheese with little tomato slices. It had no cooking directions and the ingredient list was ominous. All it said was "ingredient list available from butchery". Anyway, after cooking it for 60 minutes at 180 degrees C (350 f), it looked great. Until I cut it that is. When I first saw the pink, I thought I had undercooked it. But as it turns out, this thing started pink and I think would stay pink even if you set it on fire (see picture). And it did taste sort of flammable with that same vinegary taste and mysterious little red flecks.
We ate about half of it and the next day we were confronted with mystery meat loaf leftovers. We don’t discard leftovers as casually as we used to. Karen and I were having lunch at home and decided to try mystery meat loaf Panini. So I used my George Forearm Grill (this is where you put the Panini in one frying pan, and squish it with another frying pan using your forearm to exert just the right amount of pressure). It turns out this was pretty good. I think it works this way for me; I have a mental picture (looks, smell, taste) of what meat loaf is supposed to be like. I don’t really have one for Panini. With the mystery meat hidden and squished in a Panini roll, my mind was free to consume without question.
This expectation thing affects dairy and beef products the most. My sense is that the milk, cheese, and beef have more of a grassy taste here. I imagine it’s healthier than the feedlot steroid/hormone enhanced stuff I’m used to. Unfortunately, it’s not what I’m used to so I don’t drink as much milk here. That’s OK, it costs more (US$5.99/gal vs. US$3.99/gal) and the biggest size you can buy is 2 liters. We used to buy 2 gallons at a time, but now 2 liters lasts a week. This grassy smell is also in the air. Christchurch is a pretty big city in the middle of a large farming region. So if the wind is right it all smells like pasture or pasture animals. It’s a million times better than being down wind of a pig farm in NC, but still gets your attention.
Ice cream and yogurt are big. The big ice cream company is Tip Top, and one of their best sellers is the Jelly Tip Trumpet which is advertised on TV by a guy in a Speedo. Ice cream flavors are different; I had an orange chocolate chip scoop the other day. Potato chips come in some fun flavors too, like chicken or lamb. Beer costs about the same and seems to be good. Cheap wine here is worse than cheap wine at home.
Actually the whole grocery store experience is different. Most malls have a grocery store. The grocery store only opens to the inside of the mall, so after buying your groceries, you’re pushing your trolley down the mall to get to the parking lot. Our local mall (Riccarton) is the second biggest in NZ, it would be about fourth biggest in the Raleigh area. The mall includes a Kmart and a Border’s books. There’s an Office Depot, but most of the big box stores are local. We bought a really small chilly bin (ice chest) for NZ$55 at “The Warehouse”. There are lots of new jingles rolling around in our heads and Abby is very good at singing the appropriate jingle as we pass stores in the car.
Cheers,
Bob
