Snacks and takeaways
In the cities you’ll come across food courts, usually in shopping malls with a dozen or so stalls selling bargain plates of all manner of ethnic dishes. Traditional burger bars continue to serve constructions far removed from the limp international-franchise offerings: weighty buns with juicy patties, thick ketchup, a stack of lettuce and tomato and the ever-present Kiwi favourite, slices of beetroot. Meat pies are another stalwart of snacking; sold in bakeries and from warming cabinets in pubs everywhere, the traditional steak and mince varieties are now supplemented by bacon and egg, venison, steak and cheese, steak and oyster, smoked fish and kumara and, increasingly, vegetarian versions.
Fish and chips (or “greasies”) are also rightly popular – the fish is often shark (euphemistically called lemon fish or flake), though tastier species are always available for slightly more. Look out too for paua fritters – battered slabs of minced abalone that are something of an acquired taste.
Self-catering and farmers’ markets
If you’re self-catering, your best bet for cheap supplies is the local supermarket: Pak ‘n Save is usually the cheapest; New World usually has the widest variety of quality foods. In emergencies you can top up with supplies from the plethora of convenience corner shops (known as “dairies”) stocking bog-standard essentials. These, along with shops at campsites and those in isolated areas with a captive market, tend to have inflated prices.
Gourmet foodstuffs are best sought at the wide range of small independent outlets, offering predominantly local and/or organic supplies. These can be supplemented with visit to farmers’ markets: every town of any size now seems to have one, usually on Saturday or Sunday morning – we’ve mentioned several throughout the guide.
Drinking
Licensed cafés and restaurants all over the land make a point of stocking a wide range of New Zealand wines and beers, but for the lowest prices and a genuine Kiwi atmosphere you can’t beat the pub. It’s a place where folk stop off on their way home from work, its emphasis on consumption and back-slapping camaraderie rather than ambience and decor. In the cities, where competition from cafés is strong, pubs tend to be more comfortable and relaxing, but in the sticks little has changed. Rural pubs can initially be daunting for strangers, but once you get chatting, barriers soon drop. Drinking hours are barely limited at all; theoretically you can drink in most bars until at least midnight on weeknights and until 4am or later at weekends though places often close much earlier if there are few customers. The drinking age is 18. Smokers are banished to the open air, often in small, purpose-built shelters.
Beer
Beer is drunk everywhere and often. Nearly all of it is produced by two huge conglomerates – New Zealand Breweries and DB – who market countless variations on the lager and Pilsener theme, as well as insipid, deep-brown fizzy liquid dispensed from taps and in bottles as “draught” – a distant and altogether feebler relation of British-style bitter. One eternal favourite is Steinlager, now marketed in a “no-additive” version Pure. There really isn’t a lot to choose between the beers except for alcohol content, normally around four percent, though five percent is common for premium beers usually described as “export”.
Beer consumption generally is on a decline, but there is a boom in small breweries making craft beers. Tap into the craft beer scene at wrealbeer.co.nz and wbeertourist.co.nz.
Draught beer is usually sold in pints (just over half a litre). Keep in mind that a half-pint will always be served as a ten fluid ounce glass and therefore will be a little over half the price of a pint. In rural areas, traditions die hard and you can buy a one-litre jug, which is then decanted into the required number of glasses, usually a seven (originally seven fluid ounces, or 200ml), a ten, or even an elegantly fluted twelve.
Prices vary enormously, but you can expect to pay $6–9 for a pint. It is much cheaper to buy in bulk from a bottle shop (off-licence or liquor store) which will stock a fair range of mainstream and boutique beers, usually in a six-pack of 330ml bottles (around $12–15) or multiple thereof.
Wine
Kiwis are justifiably loyal to New Zealand winemakers, who now produce wines that are among the best in the world, especially white wines. New Zealand is rapidly encroaching on the Loire’s standing as the world benchmark for Sauvignon Blanc, while the bold fruitiness of its Chardonnay and apricot and citrus palate of its Rieslings attract many fans. Restaurant menus are packed with New Zealand whites, but red wines have traditionally been of the broad-shouldered Aussie variety. This has largely changed as improved canopy management and better site selection have brought Kiwi reds up alongside their Australian cousins, though sometimes at a higher price. There are certainly some superb wines based on Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot (particularly from Waiheke Island and Hawke’s Bay), but the reds garnering the most praise are Pinot Noirs from Central Otago, Marlborough and Martinborough, and Hawke’s Bay Syrah – essentially a Shiraz but made in a subtler fashion than the Aussie style.
A liking for champagne no longer implies “champagne tastes” in New Zealand: you can still buy the wildly overpriced French stuff, but good Kiwi Méthode Traditionelle (fermented in the bottle in the time-honoured way) starts at around $13 a bottle. Montana’s Lindauer Brut is widely available, and justly popular. Many people round out their restaurant meal with dessert wines (or “sticky”), typically made from grapes withered on the vine by the botrytis fungus, the so-called “noble rot”.
Most bars and licensed restaurants have a tempting range of wines, many sold by the glass ($7–12; $8 and up for dessert wine), while in shops the racks groan under bottles starting from $11 ($15–25 for good quality).
If you want to try before you buy, visit a few wineries, where it is usually free to sample half a dozen different wines. There is sometimes a small fee, especially to try the reserve wines, but it is always redeemable if you buy a bottle or two. A good starting point for information on the Kiwi wine scene is wnzwine.com.
Spirits
The big success story for New Zealand spirits is 42 Below vodka (w42below.com). It’s pretty good, and comes in numerous infused flavours including and kiwifruit, passionfruit, and Kiwi favourites such as feijoa and manuka honey. They also make delicious South Gin (wsouthgin.com).
The commercial success of these tipples has spawned Kiwi pretenders such as Stolen Rum (wstolenrum.com), Smoke & Oakum’s rum (wgunpowderrum.com), Broken Shed vodka (wbrokenshed.com) and others.
A few places, mostly in the south of the South Island, produce a little single malt whisky, the best being Oamaru’s New Zealand Malt Whisky Co. (wthenzwhisky.com). Minor players dabble in fruit liqueurs; some are delicious, though few visitors develop an enduring taste for the sickly sweet kiwifruit or feijoa varieties, which are mostly sold through souvenir shops.
Tea and coffee
Tea is usually a down-to-earth Indian blend (sometimes jocularly known as “gumboot”), though you may also have a choice of a dozen or so flavoured, scented and herbal varieties. Coffee drinking has been elevated to an art form with a specialized terminology: an Italian-style espresso is known as a short black (sometimes served with a jug of hot water so you can dilute it to taste); a weaker and larger version is a long black, which, with the addition of hot milk, becomes a flat white. Better places will serve all these decaffeinated, skinny or made with soya milk. Flavoured syrups are available but are not common.
The Edmonds Cookery Book and Kiwi desserts
Almost every Kiwi household has a battered copy of the Edmonds Cookery Book, first produced in 1908 and still selling over 20,000 copies a year. Parents often give the kids a copy when they first leave home. The recipes are wide-ranging but the focus is on the baking, usually using Edmond’s baking powder which is still prominent on supermarket shelves. This is the first place people turn for making the sort of cakes and desserts that have always filled the shelves of rural tearooms. Fancier modern cafés following a retro tip are now re-inventing these Kiwi classics.
Afghans The origin of the name is lost, but these chocolate-and-cornflake-dough biscuits topped with cocoa icing are an eternal favourite.
Anzac biscuit Textured cookie made with oats and coconut.
Carrot cake A Kiwi favourite still found in cafés and tearooms all over.
Lamington A light sponge slice slathered in pink icing and desiccated coconut.
Pavlova No more than a giant, soft meringue covered in cream and fruit, this is the apotheosis of Kiwi desserts.