Can you find it in New Zealand?

One question I get asked when I chat with friends in the States is “Can you find it in New Zealand?” The answer is "usually." You have to be creative and you must know where to look. I am trying to be creative and I am learning where to look.

There are two items that have completely eluded me thus far: soynut butter and Bona floor cleaning products. I have found all sorts of nut butters, but not soynut better. Colin is allergic to peanuts and tree nuts. Wow. I was just looking for a link for the Bona Company to make sure I spelled it correctly and I happened upon a distributor in Auckland. Now, there’s just soynut butter to find. Beware, we plan on asking visiting family and friends to fill their suitcases with soynut butter.

Typical of tourist spots, shopping is particularly expensive in Queenstown and selection can be limited. I looked at riding boots for the boys at a local shop and found them online for about a third of the local price. Ouch! I bought Mennen pre-shave gel for Doug at a pharmacy in Queenstown and it cost about NZ$12 (US$9.50). I came home and found it priced in the U.S. for $3.69. I understand we are off the beaten track, but that seems like a steep mark-up.

We have been following local advice and making lists to order stuff online or for a shopping trip to a bigger town, like Christchurch. Making a list and having to wait a bit are actually quite helpful. While waiting to purchase some items, we’ve learned to make do and then realized we don’t need them after all. Or, we’ve found something else around the house that works well enough. The waiting and list making slows down the “gotta have it and gotta have it now” mentality.

Grocery shopping is particularly challenging for me anywhere because I try to buy local, organic and recycled. I have come up with a three-stop grocery circuit for a complete list. I have one big grocery store, New World, for the bulk items like cereal and toilet paper (recycled paper even) and it even has some organic produce and coffee. My second stop is Destination Organic, a little organic shop for grains, tea, interesting flours, like quinoa flour, and good bar soap. It also has some produce, milk and meat, but selection can be limited. My last stop is Mediterranean Market that also supplies grocery items to restaurants. It has fish, meat, lots more produce and some fresh baked breads. I don’t often actually go to all three grocery stores on one trip. I just stop in whichever I am passing and get what I can. I just heard about a butcher that is great for meats and cheeses that I have to find. Being summer there’s also a farmers’ market on Saturdays and lots of roadside stands selling fruits, veggies and fresh fish.

There are lots of little specialty shops for items that would be found in big grocery stores in the States. One little shop has flax seed oil, while another has protein powder. There is no contact lens solution at the grocery store. It is only sold at a pharmacy. I kept looking for it at the grocery store. I knew it had to be somewhere because Kiwis wear contacts too. Finally I asked and was told, “It’s at the pharmacy, of course.”

The whole month of January I couldn’t find limes anywhere. Limes are practically a food group for Doug. He uses them for his G&Ts and Corona. At one point I was told by a Med Market grocer, “There are no limes on the South Island.” I had to break the news to Doug, who looked at me like I couldn’t be serious. We had to resort to lemons. Limes returned in February.

Alcohol purchases are Doug’s department. He has figured out where to buy wine and beer for selection and price. Now that the boys are at school we plan to head out to nearby Gibbston Valley for an afternoon, or two, of exploring the local wineries. Central Otago is known for its Pinot Noir.

Today Doug found a mail forwarding service called Access USA. It could be helpful for anyone outside the U.S. wanting to shop online at U.S. retailers, because many retailers will not ship outside the U.S. We can purchase stuff online in the States and have our purchases mailed to this service. Access USA waits until there are enough packages to fill an appropriate sized box and mails the group of packages to us at one time, minimizing our overseas mailing costs. Purchasing some stuff in the States and shipping it overseas could be cheaper for us than buying it in New Zealand, even with NZ taxes and shipping costs. Having it mailed all together also make environmental sense as only one shipment will be sent long distance from one location. In the end of the day, unfortunately, many items available in New Zealand get shipped to New Zealand.