Rugby World Cup at Kiwi cut-throat prices

The current furore in New Zealand about the country being a rip-off for tourists (so look out rugby World Cup 2011 tourists) should be taken seriously when a former All Black who played in 81 test matches says NZ is “really expensive”and suggests that pricing needs to be addressed. Former All Black Justin Marshall bases his comments on having lived in the UK for five years before returning to New Zealand. Now the UK is well-known as expensive, certainly so in my experience from having lived in England with a cringing wallet for a while.

The debate about costs to unsuspecting tourists got heated when UK rugby correspondent Peter Bills published an article titled “New Zealand: 100% pure rip-off” where he rather factually points out the fleece-worthy pricing on items at tourist attractions like the Auckland Waterfront. As a writer who has not been back to SA in six years I felt at home with some of the commentary he got, such as him being advised by a Kiwi to take a sexual hike back to the UK. They could easily have been Thought Leader commentaries. However, I stress that Bills was simply presenting the facts, the cold, hard figures printed on the right-hand side of juicy looking menu items. And to be fair, there were many Kiwis in the opinion and letter columns who agreed with Bills.

Bills points out the cost of a glass of wine at one of the Auckland Waterfront establishments. Fourteen NZ dollars. That is about seventy South African rands. One argument against New Zealand being a rip-off is that Bills is only referring to expensive places like the Auckland Waterfront. Well, for a start, tourists are not going to know where to go to find the cheaper places and they want to see the tourist sites anyway. The cost of a taxi to get to a more reasonably priced restaurant or pub would compromise the cheaper night out as well. And don’t start thinking that it is that much cheaper in the more homely, authentically Kiwi areas. Just yesterday I was taking a stroll through Browns Bay and saw a trendy looking bistro opposite the library, a crèche, and nearby a Chinese butchery with dinkum SA biltong. I mention the establishments nearby as Browns Bay is a smart area, but the bistro’s positioning was no great shakes, certainly not Sandton City. At this bistro, the cost for a bowl of muesli for brekkie, a creation toasted and prepared personally on their premises? Fourteen NZ dollars. It was my birthday, and I was thinking of treating Marion, but when I saw that price for a humble bowl of cereal, toasted on the premises or not, I immediately muttered, “gaan kak in die mielies” and stalked out. Sure, that was the biggest rip-off I could see on the menu, but in places like that you are highly unlikely to get a meal for two with one beverage each for less than forty dollars.

Let’s head to the suburbs to a typical franchise operation, a coffee shop called Cafe Etage, still trendy, and the kind of Kiwi place where I would imagine tourists would want to relax. After all, many have travelled half the world to get to New Zealand. At Cafe Etage, popular, found in many malls, say you decide to have a mere sausage roll for lunch or a bite on the run. That is five dollars and fifty cents for a sossie that could still be picked up with a toothpick. I’m not saying it is as small as a cocktail sausage, but a toothpick would still do the trick. An ordinary pub, a local area’s watering hole, will be seven dollars for a beer, probably more. No chance of it being that, erm, cheap in the tourist traps.

Now let’s try places like Kentucky Fried Chicken. Even though God alone knows what tourist would want to spend time in a carbon-copy food outlet the same as home after all that air travel to one of the most scenically fabulous destinations in the world. After sitting in a red plastic booth that squeaks just like the ones back home, it will be roughly six dollars a burger. Without the chips. An ordinary shopping mall food court price for a meal in an ordinary area where we live, Bayview, is unlikely to be less than nine dollars. That is for sitting in an often rowdy area with squealing children and it could be any cloned food court in the world with plastic seats and tables, primly practical, eat and go. That is not a negative criticism; that is just the nature of ordinary food courts and food outlets internationally. But again, what visitor keen to see some authentic Kiwi-land, would particularly want to go there to save a bit on a meal? He may just end up having to, and, as suggested in the debate, New Zealand does not want disgruntled tourists who do not wish to come back or give the country a bad name for tourist destinations.

Of course, I don’t have the temerity or depth of wallet to actually eat in these places; I am simply pointing out the costs. There are many things you can fall in love with about New Zealand, from the wonderfully friendly down-to-earth people to the magnificent, well-cared for scenery, but eating out is not one of them. Sitting on lovely, litter-free beaches with a lunch made at home is definitely one of the pleasures here.

If the successful SA world football cup is anything to go by, this is a chance for a hosting country to scrutinise itself and have an honest group conscience overhaul. The cost of eating out and many other living costs need a thorough examination.

By the way, based on my four-month experience here, there is a huge opportunity for well-priced coffee houses to take off in the right places. For a start I have yet to come across a place with bottomless coffee, like good old Mugg & Bean and even some Spur and Steers outlets in SA (is it still like that?) I’m not even sure if the average Kiwi knows what a bottomless mug of coffee means.