The boys who had been most generous hosts asked us our impressions of New Zealand, so here we go.
Things to copy
The proliference of Motels over Hotels so you can get your own breakfast and cook simple meals, a great improvement over 2 or more restaurant meals a day on a long trip.
Every primary school has a most wonderful adventure playground attatched , obviously with little insurers' concern as to claims.
Fijoa. The fijoa fruit is a native of Brazil. It cannot be grown commercially there because it has a moth parasite which destroys the crop. Moved to New Zealand it has no predators and can be grown commercially. Sweetheart returned with fijoa liqueur and I brought back fijoa chocolate,but it is the fruit ifself which would be a really useful addition to our imports.
The prices for Test Matches.
The huge number of small artisan breweries.
Things to change/improve/do better.
Cheese. Cheese is everywhere. Steak pies have cheese, chicken pies have brie cheese. burgers have cheese, burger pies have cheese. Sandwiches have cheese be they descibed as beef, chicken, salmon or tuna. If you ask for one without cheese they give you one with cheese in; when you challenge them they explain that that is only the hard cheese and they have left out the cream cheese. The cheese is generally pretty low grade mass produced cheese. There is some quite nice spreadable blue cheese and they have some camembert and brie cheese although the camembert tastes like brie. They seem to have no equivalent to the best hard cheeses, Stilton, Wensleydale, Lancashire, Sage Derby, Parmesan, Roquefort, Pecorino. There is some Feta and Mozzarella. Cheesemaking seems to be the monopoly of one or two large dairy firms. They need an input of artisan cheesemakers just as they have small brewers. It would probably really benefit their economy as well as their diet as specialist cheeses would have a greater profit margin and they rely on dairy exports for a large part of their economy.
They think they are a bilingual society but they have a long way to go to meet welsh standards in their signage which tends to be english or maori depending on whom they expect to be reading it rather than having everything in both languages regardless.
The price of books. Their books are imported from Britain. In Australia the cost of books imported from Britain are the dollar euivalent or thereabouts at current exchange rates as one would expect. In New Zealand one would expect it to be the stirling price x 1.80 (the exchange rate) plus 10% sales tax, or about double the stirling price. I bought 4 books at about £8 so expected the bill to be about $70. It was in fact $140. There is no explanation for this profiteering. That being said when in India it is possible to buy new current books for sale in India and Pakistan only for about 30% less than the British price. If Australasia were allowed to import and sell these (less distance to transport them) they could be even cheaper. The publishers seem to be holding the country to ransom.
The price of medicines. Generic paracetamol cost $8 or £4.50. In Tesco they cost 25p. Other medicines are similarly priced. Cynical profiteering by the drug companies.
The country was expriencing its worst drought in 70 years. It was noticeable that the burnoff was only in the areas which had been cleared for grass pasture. Unlike Morrocco it was not burnt off to bare earth but just browned off. Also the rivers although low had water in them and were not totally dried up, so better water management would avoid the difficulties.
The grassland was generally divided into fields by wire fences. Sheep seemed to be farmed in fields rather than hefted to a mountain. I know that most native plants have poisonous fruits which would be inimicable to livestock but if some indiginous hedging could be developed to replace the wire; this would provide wildlife corridors to promote indiginous birdlife etc.
The forestry industry has planted large conifer forests of introduced californian pines and appears to be replanting where they have been felled. Monocultures are always bad for wildlife and conifers in particular being acidic do not produce proper leaf mould so that other under species are supressed. It must be possible to replant with a more mixed woodland including more expensive hardwoods.
The houses which are mostly wood appear to have very poor levels of insulation.
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| Wellington Departure Lounge |
Things to copy
The proliference of Motels over Hotels so you can get your own breakfast and cook simple meals, a great improvement over 2 or more restaurant meals a day on a long trip.
Every primary school has a most wonderful adventure playground attatched , obviously with little insurers' concern as to claims.
Fijoa. The fijoa fruit is a native of Brazil. It cannot be grown commercially there because it has a moth parasite which destroys the crop. Moved to New Zealand it has no predators and can be grown commercially. Sweetheart returned with fijoa liqueur and I brought back fijoa chocolate,but it is the fruit ifself which would be a really useful addition to our imports.
The prices for Test Matches.
The huge number of small artisan breweries.
Things to change/improve/do better.
Cheese. Cheese is everywhere. Steak pies have cheese, chicken pies have brie cheese. burgers have cheese, burger pies have cheese. Sandwiches have cheese be they descibed as beef, chicken, salmon or tuna. If you ask for one without cheese they give you one with cheese in; when you challenge them they explain that that is only the hard cheese and they have left out the cream cheese. The cheese is generally pretty low grade mass produced cheese. There is some quite nice spreadable blue cheese and they have some camembert and brie cheese although the camembert tastes like brie. They seem to have no equivalent to the best hard cheeses, Stilton, Wensleydale, Lancashire, Sage Derby, Parmesan, Roquefort, Pecorino. There is some Feta and Mozzarella. Cheesemaking seems to be the monopoly of one or two large dairy firms. They need an input of artisan cheesemakers just as they have small brewers. It would probably really benefit their economy as well as their diet as specialist cheeses would have a greater profit margin and they rely on dairy exports for a large part of their economy.
They think they are a bilingual society but they have a long way to go to meet welsh standards in their signage which tends to be english or maori depending on whom they expect to be reading it rather than having everything in both languages regardless.
The price of books. Their books are imported from Britain. In Australia the cost of books imported from Britain are the dollar euivalent or thereabouts at current exchange rates as one would expect. In New Zealand one would expect it to be the stirling price x 1.80 (the exchange rate) plus 10% sales tax, or about double the stirling price. I bought 4 books at about £8 so expected the bill to be about $70. It was in fact $140. There is no explanation for this profiteering. That being said when in India it is possible to buy new current books for sale in India and Pakistan only for about 30% less than the British price. If Australasia were allowed to import and sell these (less distance to transport them) they could be even cheaper. The publishers seem to be holding the country to ransom.
The price of medicines. Generic paracetamol cost $8 or £4.50. In Tesco they cost 25p. Other medicines are similarly priced. Cynical profiteering by the drug companies.
The country was expriencing its worst drought in 70 years. It was noticeable that the burnoff was only in the areas which had been cleared for grass pasture. Unlike Morrocco it was not burnt off to bare earth but just browned off. Also the rivers although low had water in them and were not totally dried up, so better water management would avoid the difficulties.
The grassland was generally divided into fields by wire fences. Sheep seemed to be farmed in fields rather than hefted to a mountain. I know that most native plants have poisonous fruits which would be inimicable to livestock but if some indiginous hedging could be developed to replace the wire; this would provide wildlife corridors to promote indiginous birdlife etc.
The forestry industry has planted large conifer forests of introduced californian pines and appears to be replanting where they have been felled. Monocultures are always bad for wildlife and conifers in particular being acidic do not produce proper leaf mould so that other under species are supressed. It must be possible to replant with a more mixed woodland including more expensive hardwoods.
The houses which are mostly wood appear to have very poor levels of insulation.
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