Is it easy to live as a vegan in New Zealand?

[Vegantastic]

I was just wondering if it is hard to be there? Can you get a lot of vegan food? Can you eat vegan in the restaurants?

[eve]

It depends where about in NZ. Same applies to Australia, it depends where about you live. Where I live for example, no vegan restaurants or cafes, but the two supermarkets sell tofu, vegan cheese, etc, and of course there's plenty of fruit, vegetables, pulses, nuts etc. So if you can cater for yourself and do without takeaway, you're fine. :)

[screamingcarrot]

im a kiwi :) and lived in nz until i was 16, i wasnt a vegan back then but have been back to visit since as a vegan. i found plenty of options esp in big cities like wellington and auckland. and if there isnt something specifically vegan on the menu, most cafes and restaurants are pretty happy to whip you up a salad or alter something already on the menu if you ask them nicely..kiwis are nice people generally speaking!!
i went to a pizza place in auckland and even the salads had meat or cheese, so i explained i was vegan and asked if they could leave out the cheese, fully expecting a dull plain salad. they came out with a massive colorful platter of salad with sundried tomatoes, olives, and avocado and a side dish of nuts.and only charged a few dollars!!!! i had to defend it from everyone else at the table who were no longer interested in their pizzas!

[Aurora]

Interested reading this post as I am visiting New Zealand in November and had already decided I would probably have to live on salads, fruit and vegetables!

One thing, I always carry little bags of nuts, seeds and dried fruit with me and also Gillian McKeith's bars in case there isn't anything to eat. I understand that I can't bring ANY type of food over with me from the UK. Is that correct? Even if it's sealed?

[screamingcarrot]

kia ora, (hello in maori) :)

yeah the rules are really strict about bringing produce into nz..if its highly processed (eg in the form of packaged bars etc) it might be ok, but just to be sure, make sure you declare EVERYTHING youre not sure about..if you dont declare it and you get caught out youll get a huge fine :( , not to mention putting new zealand flora and fauna at risk!!!!!


although nz is a small country and quite far away from the rest of civilisation, the more i travel the more i grow proud of just how far advanced and open minded we are in our thinking and how healthy our lifestyle is. veganism has been alive and well in nz for ages. almost everyone there (in my experience) knows what it is.

have a great time and be sure to tell me all about it when you return! are you going to the north or south? if you want advice on where to go feel free to ask! ;)

[sp]

you can definately live vegan in nz, (i am living in wellington and am from nelson and have no problems, but i dont eat out a lot- but thats partly $$). some places are easier than others, bigger places and more alternative places are easier. if you are ok with making your own food its quite easy, organics shops and health food stores are good. though it can be hard to find places that specifically cater for vegans (eating out) but that can be worked around.

[Aurora]

kia ora, (hello in maori) :)

yeah the rules are really strict about bringing produce into nz..if its highly processed (eg in the form of packaged bars etc) it might be ok, but just to be sure, make sure you declare EVERYTHING youre not sure about..if you dont declare it and you get caught out youll get a huge fine :( , not to mention putting new zealand flora and fauna at risk!!!!!


although nz is a small country and quite far away from the rest of civilisation, the more i travel the more i grow proud of just how far advanced and open minded we are in our thinking and how healthy our lifestyle is. veganism has been alive and well in nz for ages. almost everyone there (in my experience) knows what it is.

have a great time and be sure to tell me all about it when you return! are you going to the north or south? if you want advice on where to go feel free to ask! ;)

Thanks for that Screaming Carrot. My friend lives in Golden Bay and told me that she saw a woman fined $200 for taking an apple in! I will stock up on those things when we go to a city and find a store I think! I am sure I can live without Gillian McKeith for 3 weeks ;)

We are touring both the islands. We have just completed our itinerary and sent it to my friend to see whether it's workable. We will be driving a long way I know, but there is only the two of us to consider and we have 3 weeks to do it in. I am really looking forward to it.

[screamingcarrot]

youre going to have a ball!! :D

[sophia]

Hi!
I'm going travelling to the south island for two weeks, just wondered if anyone has been there or can recommend any places/sights to visit. I'm flying to christchurch

[abrennan]

I've never been but have a good time I hear it's a great place to visit

[thecounterspark]

I will be going to New Zealand next summer (well, U.S. summer, N.Z.'s winter I think?.. June 1st..) in Wellington, so I would like to know any helpful information as well. Any native NZ-er's out there want to provide any advice regarding entertainment, vegan-friendly places, stuff to see, things to do, etc? :)

[RossClement]

Hi. I'm travelling to New Zealand (from the UK) tomorrow, me and my 7 year old. We're only there for a few days.

Can someone tell me where I can find information on vegan food in New Zealand. Particularly for my 7 year old who is a fussy eater.

Are there easily available loaves of white bread that are Vegan? What about some sort of generic sausage that is vegan? Dry sausage mix? Weetabix and/or cornflakes? Is either Marmite or Vegemite vegan there? I thought that one of them wasn't.

Are there some shops in Auckland where I might find a good selection of vegan products?

Vegan chocolate bars?

Online vegan lists for a large supermarket or supermarket chain?

I think last time I was there I was told that all Sanitarium products are vegan. But I found some Sanitarium sausages with egg in them. This was some time ago and I may have misremembered/got it wrong in the first place.

Help, please! Sorry if I sound disorganised but it is a rushed trip. I only booked the tickets yesterday.

[insubordination]

Sanitarium's products are not all vegan. Beware!

I'm not from NZ but I've been there. You won't have a problem eating vegan.

[RossClement]

When I was last there I found out about Sanitarium foods. I'll phone their customer number again and see what they say.

I did find this, however, which I have printed out to take.

http://www.happycow.net/australia/new_zealand/auckland/

[RossClement]

Well I've been there and back. I did find it difficult to survive as a vegan there. There is very little labelling of food. Sanitarium were not very helpful. They just told me that not all of their products were vegan, and I should check the labels. Presumably for the ingredients, meaning that I have to wonder whether particular e numbers are vegan or not. Even things that you'd expect were vegan, such as tofu sausages with no obviously non-vegan ingredients, weren't even labelled as "suitable for vegetarians".

To be honest, I did the very best I could in the time available, but I'm damn sure that I must have made at least one mistake while there. And I don't think that would be necessary for someone visiting the UK, with the better labelling and online information here.

In hindsight, things haven't been as bad as they could have been, as I retroactively checked out some ingredients that I used in food, and so far I've been OK. Chelsea sugar seems to have been vegan since 2003 (I only found Billingtons sugar on sale too late) and the margarine I used, Olivani "dairy free", is quoted as being used by many vegans online. (The one web
page I found saying it wasn't vegan was incorrectly claiming that lactic acid is made from lactose.)

Things would be much easier for people eating in cafes I suppose. The only place I ate at was The Bluebird Cafe on Dominion Road, Auckland. I'd personally recommend this place highly. It's definitely a cafe selling food following a pattern, rather than a restaurant with more wide-ranging and varied meals. But I liked what I ate. The main meals are usually some liquid-ish (sauce-ish) food on top of a "base". I wanted to eat food on a kumara (sweet potato) base, but expected the sweetness to be too much. But the "Moroccan" lentil dish I had on top balanced the sweetness of the kumara extremely well. The bread side-dish (with Olivani) served was very nice bread, and the vegan chocolate cake was very popular with all. Here are some reviews, one positive, and one negative. Looking at the reviews, I think the second person had unsatisfied expectations, and I'd agree more with the first.

http://www.viewauckland.co.nz/review_2714.html

[Poppet]

I'm sorry you found it difficult to be Vegan here.
I just go to the supermarket and get mostly fruit, veg, rice, oats, oils, herbs and spices and very little else. There are some specialty Vegan products availiable which are labelled as such, but most of the time you do just have to read the ingredients and sometimes look up certain additives numbers. I don't really buy those sorts of things much, except for buckwheat pancake mix and no-egg, and occasionally tofu, but maybe it's a good thing there is a bit of hassle with processed Vegan foods here, processed foods are crap anyway. Healthfood stores and Asian stores have much more packaged Vegan stuff, it's sometimes annoying to find things in the supermarket.

Burgerfuel (who pride themselves as the healthy alternative to other burgerbars) has Vegan burger that is fucking delicious, and several vegetarian ones that you just need to ask not to have aioli and cheese and they will make them Vegan for you, and they have Vegan soy maltshakes. There is a Burgerfuel on Dominion road, like 30 seconds walk from Bluebird Cafe, you ought to have eaten there. :p

Probably a little late now, but yes of course vegemite is vegan! and weetbix and cornflakesl. Most, if not all of the dark chocolate here is Vegan, unlike the U.S. (don't know about U.K.) And lots of Vegan sausages, just don't buy the cheap ones they're yukky.

K-road is good, has the SAFE store and some cool cafe's.

It's really easy to be Vegan in Auckland, you probably found it difficult just because you were unfamiliar with where to go, and probably alot of the products and brands that you are used to are not here, and you don't know which of our brands are decent.

[Aims]

^ yeah, I live in Auckland too and also find it pretty easy.
Not always so much with restaurants but then again I think if a chef can't whip something up for you then they're seriously lacking in skills.

Marmite is vegan here too (didn't realise vegemite was! I'd heard it wasn't, but then never checked because I don't like it.. good to know, though :) )

And now I'm hungry for Burgerfuel (there's one literally across the street from me in Botany) so I think I better go make some dinner.. hehe.

[ClawsyWP]

i dunno, i used to live in Wellington NZ, and we ate very plain food which is OK> But now being in London its like Xmas every shopping day, shops have way more variety and it is a heck of a lot cheaper too.
Mind due i am now eating a lot of veg sausages, vege roasts, premade meals, and vege burgers , soy yoghurts, and vegan cheeses etc. Where back home i would not eat these because too expensive and not much to choose from. So maybe my food has changed a lot and is tastier because i was never a good cook, but it could be healthier.
I think I would find it hard to ajust when and if i go back, because am spoiled for choices in london..unless the nz shops have improved alot since 2005. Might be a lot better in Auckland though.

[Poppet]

We said it was easy to be Vegan in New Zealand, we didn't say it was easy to be a pampered Vegan haha.
We do have those things, but like, for example the soy yoghurt, at my supermarket anyway, there is only one brand, and there are only strawberry, blueberrie, tropical, and something else.. there is no plain soy yoghurt or vanilla soy yoghurt, which is annoying if you got a recipe or something that wants plain.

[ClawsyWP]

gosh thats good, cause this is only 2 years ago in wellington, the only place i could get soy yoghurt would have been the organic shop in the city and it would've been extremly pricey. The supermarket we used only had tofu, and sometimes vege sausages (they were pretty expensive though). I suck at cooking so i lived a lot on tofu sandwiches heh.

oops i jsut remeberd Woolworths did have soy yoghurt, it was jsut a rip off though, too expensive for me, we did our shopping at Countdown , reasonable price but not exactly home of alternative foods.
Wellington has the best veggie/vegan (im pretty sure its all vegan)resturant , Aunty Menas on Cuba street. OMG their laska is just the best fricking food i have ever tasted EVER. Am craving some now just thinking about it.

[Campbell]

Hey there! I'm from Melbourne, moving to NZ in December and wondering if anyone had any thoughts on life in Wellington v life in Auckland. Which are the nice areas to look for a place to live? Can't wait to come over, from everything I've read and heard about Kiwiland, it seems a lot more progressive on social justice and looking after mama earth. :)

[Aims]

I live in Auckland so maybe I'm a bit jaded from all the traffic (and I've only just started driving!) and crap, but I tend to think Wellington seems a nicer place to live. It's always a great place to visit anyway. Better public transport, interesting shopping and people. Bigger on the vegetarian-friendly stuff too (I get the veg society emails and there's always huge lists of events in Wellington and Christchurch but bugger all for Auckland).

Having said that, I like Auckland. That probably wasn't too helpful.

[Aims]

for example the soy yoghurt, at my supermarket anyway, there is only one brand, and there are only strawberry, blueberrie, tropical, and something else.. there is no plain soy yoghurt or vanilla soy yoghurt, which is annoying if you got a recipe or something that wants plain.
Yes it sucks!
I did find some plain soy yoghurt here though: http://www.naturallyorganic.co.nz/
Of course having to order online is a pain in the arse and not so convenient. They do get your order to you within the same day if you order before 10 or 11 though.. however the downside is they use waaay too much packaging for just a few items. But you take the good with the bad, and I spose it's worth it if it's the missing ingredient for a batch of good cupcakes.

[jessica*]

Hi. This is my first post. I was surprised at how much there is in NZ. (We moved here from the states. I was vegetarian when I got here, but after discovering the dark side behind even the SPCA approved free range eggs - the gassing or grinding of most male chicks - I went vegan.)

Even though I'm not in a big city, my local grocers have Fry's vegan hotdogs, that soy yogurt Poppet mentions, Bliss soy ice cream, different soy and rice milks, organic nut butters, grains, etc... Also there's an organic veg market and an organic grocery out here.

Fry's is nice and puts the green symbol of the Vegan Society, but for much of the other stuff I have to check carefully. Having numbers for additive labeling isn't at all helpful!! There is an Australian Veg. site that lists which numbered additives are always or sometimes derived from animal sources. (http://www.vnv.org.au/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=85&Itemid=97#DERIVED%20FROM%20ANIMALS%20%28by%20numbe r%29)

I could see where a visitor would be overwhelmed by trying to figure out what was vegan while traveling. As someone who lives here, I've found it very doable. I hope the Green party continues to push for vegetarian and vegan labeling (http://www.greens.org.nz/food-revolution/vegetarianfood.asp) though, so I can stop pouring over labels. :D

[purpleflower]

Hoping to visit NZ in the next 2 years, but found Japan was impossible as a vegan. I spent ages explaining to this guy who spoke perfect English what I didn't eat and the restaurant still served me a bowl of soup with pork in it!!?
Big time yuck!!! Thankfully I spent 2 day there. (World Cup football 2002)