New Zealand wines are earning a great reputation world-wide and trips round the wineries are included in most holiday itineraries. At the time of writing a three litre carton of local wine will cost you $20.00 A decent bottle of European wine can be quite expensive.
I really miss poking around in the chilled cabinet in Sainsburys and if I want a no hassle treat nowadays I use the take-away.
Fish and chips are cheap, served with salt and eaten with tomato sauce. No self respecting Kiwi would put vinegar on his chips. The fish pieces are small, you just ask for one or two fish and a scoop. A scoop is a large portion of chips and you get the ‘fish of the day’.
Chinese takeaways abound and Indian and Mexican are available. Pizzas seem to be predominant in delivered take-aways. Meat pies are the traditional food of the New Zealander and take-away pies can be bought for $1.00 but are not to everyone’s taste!
Household goods
In recent years there has been a tremendous relaxation in import laws and this has resulted in a good range of reasonably priced goods being made available.
As a very rough guide, I list below some mid range prices for some of the major items as at July 2004:
Washing machine $965 - $1,650
Clothes dryer $500 - $750
Fridge/freezer $1,000 - $5,800
Dishwasher $1,100 - $1,900
Oven (free-standing) $900-$2,500
Microwave oven $400-$1,400
Television (14��?) $400 - $550
Video $350-$1,650
Lawnmower $400-$1,000
Vacuum cleaner $150-$1,000
Bed: single $630-$2,500
Bed: double, queen or king $800-$4,200
Lounge suite $2,000-$6,000
Dining suite $800-$5,000
Fisher & Paykel is the main whiteware manufacturer. The front loader is becoming increasingly popular and I believe it is kinder on the washing. Given my time over, I would not chose a top loading washing machine, as I feel it has shortened the life of some of my clothes. Because of the soft water, many people wash their clothes in cold water and use the low suds powder recommended. It is not a habit I have adopted.