Numbers

May 3

We drove 4100 kilometers (2469 miles) in 23 days. We will be here a month but didn’t drive n Auckland as it is easy to get around on foot or bus. We found New Zealand to be expensive. We made assumptions as to why it is so expensive. We assume that many goods are imported and not manufactured here. Petrol is quite expensive ranging from 2.04 to 2.38 a liter. It takes 3.8 liters to make a gallon so it is $7.75 ($6.58 USD) a gallon. That alone will increase the cost of goods. We also think there is not much cheap labor here. We were told that farmers bring Fijians and Samoans here to harvest fruit crops and they are paid by piece work. Food is very expensive. We ate dinners in restaurants. Here are some sample prices. Bread is listed as an entrée (starter). It costs $8.50-$12.00 ($7.22-$10.20 USD). We saw a toasted bagel listed for $8.50 ($7.22). Coffee is $4.00-$4.50 ($3.40-$3.82) in most places. Mains run from $26-$38 ($22.10-$32.30) in most of the restaurants where we ate. Lunches ran $12-$15 ($10.20-$12.75) as a minimum. A scone is $4.00. A side salad is $8.00-$9.00 ($6.80-$7.65). Tap beer runs $8.50-$9.00. We usually had granola for breakfast that we had bought and then added more nuts to beef it up. Many lunches we ate a picnic lunch of bread with cheese, salami and sprouts. These two meals saved us a lot and helped us t avoid three restaurant meals a day which neither of us likes to do. Our hostels costs ran from $75 to $92 ($63.75-$78.20) a night while a motel was $90 to $115 ($76.50-$97.75). Doing our own laundry was $4.00 to $5.00 to wash and $4.00 to dry.

Ron and I took a 10 minute ferry ride to Devonport across from Auckland. This is a charming suburb that was established in the mid 1800’s. It must be a very desirable residential area as we stopped by a real estate office and read ads for homes for sales. Two small cottages were listed. One was $899,000 and the other was over a million.

We went to a movie and the price was $10.50 each. We shopped for a rugby shirt for our grandson and found they sold for $140 NZ dollars. Jacob is 10 years old and will receive a t-shirt! HA!