Food issue

Oh yes the shops will be open that day for Boxing Day sales! Whether small non-franchise businesses in Qtown will be open is another story but most retailers like to make the most of people in holiday mode. You will def find a supermarket open to do some food shopping :o)

Quite a few small service shops are even open on xmas day, I second what Lisa said. Being a tourist town I expect most of Queenstown should be open on boxing day.

Now heres an interesting topic. One of the joys of walking NewZealand for me is the trip to and from the designated walk and most of all stopping of at a different place each time for a coffee and a sampling of the various culinary delites that can be found in the most unexpected places. No trip south of Auckland is complete without a stop at Mercer Cheese for example, this excentric man produces some of the best cheese in NZ judged at the NZ cheese awards this year. His cream walnut cheese is hard to describe (you have got to try this) and the extra adged gouda is stunning. Goes well with rum and honey pickled onions another item picked up in the Waikato. Had an outstanding sausage with brunch at a small place on the outskirts of tauranga in May. Theres a coffee shop in taupo that makes a great bacon and egg slice. I could go on but if you find something unique let us know Im a starter.

It may only be a small point, but we used to always avoid buying anything in Queenstown like the plague. It was just that ordinary commodities were quite a bit more expensive than anywhere else in the country. That was a while ago but I hardly imagine that situation has changed.

pmcke: I fly directly to Queenstown from Aus. so there's nothing I can do - I could bring some food with me if it was Europe, but here people have gone crazy with all the restrictions... Thanks everybody for the ideas - they were very helpfull. I'll definitely try some local specialities.

You are quite right. Don't try to bring food into NZ. There are instant fines for failing to declare food coming into NZ. It actually isn't crazy, there are a lot of potentially devastating pests that could be brought into NZ on undeclared foodstuffs.

When i fly to Christchurch Customs go through my stuff with a fine tooth comb and that is good to see.When i left ChCh for Brisbane in April,in Brisbane i was not asked to empty out my pack at all,all they said was go through green light gate IE:nothing to declare and i told them on the form you fill out on the plane Tramping Tent and been on farm land what can you say

Some kinds of food seem to be okay, but I don't think it's worth risking it. 6 months ago I flew into Auckland from the USA carrying some of that dehydrated astronaut ice-cream. On the declaration form I ticked the boxes for both food *and* for dairy products because I wasn't sure. The customs guy looked at me as if I'd wasted his time when I told him what it was, but it was early in the morning and I wasn't going to chance it. Generally in NZ they seem to be less cautious about New Zealanders with things like boots than people from other countries in my experience so far. To some extent I think they just decide that if you're in NZ you probably already know it's really important and why it's important, and they aren't as pedantic about checking. Going into Sydney a few years ago I was grilled for a few minutes about some juggling balls I'd packed while they went away to x-ray them, and it hadn't occurred to me there might be something dodgy or biological inside. I packed them near the top when I came back to NZ, but the guy just tried to juggle them for 10 seconds and let me through.

The food that they would have been OK with is the highly processed stuff in sealed packages. Fresh food would be a no no. I would declare anything that looks like food just to be on the safe side. If you forget about the apple or banana in the side pocket and the sniffer dog finds it (yes, they have a dog specifically to find food) then it is an instant fine, no questions.