Labour Day

It's Labour Day, the unofficial start of (early) summer - and the all-important tourist season. They're predicting 900,000 tourists this year, which is 100,000 more than last year, and almost one-quarter of the country's population. NZ really is a great place to visit - so keep a visit to us in mind when you're making vacation plans - although it will be a bit more fun once the NZ$ stops trying to hit new highs against the US$.

Obviously, the greenback's current weakness is a bit of a sore point these days. The exchange rate is about NZ$.70 - US$1.00 right now - near its all-time high. (The last time we visited, almost three years ago, it was NZ$.45 - US$1.00 - at/near the all-time low.) Local prices for lots of things are similar to U.S. prices - a loaf of bakery bread is about $4, you can find decent wine for less than $7; lettuce is $1.20/head, and you can get really great venison sausage for about $4.50 a pound. Milk is a bit pricey, since $3 only gets you 2 litres (about a half gallon, which is the standard size bottle), and that translates to fairly high cheese prices, too. (But local cheeses are really good, so it's worth it.) And some things are a great bargain: you can get a beautiful big pineapple for as little as $2 (which helps ease the pain of seeing crummy imported pomegranates going for $5 each). And NZ prices are gst inclusive, so there isn't any additional sales tax tacked on at the register.

But last week I completely lost it when I needed contact lens solution. A bottle of saline - the plain kind (without any protein remover, so you still need to buy enzyme tablets) - cost NZ$20 for a bottle that was only 240 ml! For comparison, at Walmart or Target, you can buy a 12 oz (355 ml) bottle of saline+protein remover for about US$2. After I stopped hyperventilating, I went to the internet and checked 1-800-Contacts. Thank God for the 'Net! I can order c/l solution online and even after shipping, it's cheaper than buying it in the pharmacy here. (I'm all for buying locally and want to support the NZ economy, but there's something totally out of whack here.)

Why c/l solution is only available at the pharmacy, and costs over ten times more than in the U.S., is one of many mysteries I want to understand. After being out of law school for so long, I had completely taken for granted how much a legal education taught me. Now I walk around every day going, hmmm, I wonder what that means or how this works. I can make guesses, but being the persnickety type that I am, I want to know. So, I've decided to study law again. Not just the LLM, but I'm also going to tackle the NZ Law and Practice Exams - their equivalent of the bar. I figure it's the best way to get my head around this place. And it will also keep me from getting too used to just hanging around enjoying myself.

Cheers,
Sandie