calling all Aussies and kiwis!!

[hawaiigal]

In March I will be taking a visit to my hometown of Auckland for a week to visit my relatives and then to the Gold Coast for a week...more relatives. I am new to eating raw - coming up 6 weeks - I love it and it is working so well for me. I am getting nervous about being out of my own home and being able to find good health food shops and vegetarian/raw restaurants etc.

I hope to connect with some of you in the meantime. In Auckland I will be staying in Takapuna area and the Coolangatta area of the Gold Coast.

Looking forward to hearing from you

[caramba]

I'm in Sydney so NCD this time...but contact Sheryl & Piers from www.raw-pleasure.com. They're Gold Coast based. Enjoy your trip!!

[kiwikid78]

Hey Hawaiigal,
I'm a kiwi from Auckland too, but living in California now(though it'd be a heck of alot cheaper to be raw in NZ; fruit and vegies here are insanely priced in comparrison).

I'm not really familiar with the raw scene back home(been in the states almost 3 years now), but there's a cafe on Vulcan Lane in Akld City called 'Raw Power Cafe' you could look up. I'm not sure if it's 100% raw; I think they cater to vegetarians too, but it might be worth checking out, or at least researching.

Here's a site with a list of vegetarian and vegetarian friendly restaurants in Auckland. It's a .pdf page so ya might have to download adobe acrobat to read it if you haven't already got it.

http://vegsoc.wellington.net.nz/2004...vember2004.pdf

I've been raw coming up to 6 weeks too, and I'm totally stoked with the lifestyle. In all honesty it's been quite easy for me to transition as there are alot of foods in the U.S that I just can't stand. It was far too easy to give up dairy; their cheeses here are awful, ice-cream and chocolate is gross, milk is revolting and it never seems to go off lol. Leave it on the counter for a few days and it's still drinkable. ugh! And after seeing how they keep the cows on the Harris' Ranch down in Southern Cali; my god, I'll never drink milk again. They're all fed on a staple diet of corn silage and then topped up to the eyeballs with antibiotics and growth hormones, Yuck! Not to mention the conditions they're kept in.

Incidentally, I'm green with envy you're going to the Goldcoast. I spent two weeks there before I came to the U.S and won $300 on the slot machines at Jupiters Casino. Score :)

Oh hey, you know they have those little travel tubes of vegemite in Aussie right? My sister sent me a bunch over after 2 years of vegemite withdrawl. (not technically raw, I suppose, but vegetarian friendly).

[RawTruth]

Geez, KK, if I ate dairy, you'd have convinced me to move to NZ in order to truly experience it!! Hey, you seem way too bright to have moved to the States for the food, anyway, girl! ;)

[kiwikid78]

RT, dairy back home is certainly a different experience. The ice-cream is to die for. (I didn't actually realize how good it was until I started traveling) We have an infamous flavor exclusive to NZ called Hokey Pokey, which is vanilla with honeycomb balls in it. I actually met some travelers who'd come to NZ on a trip down under specifically to try the Hokey Pokey ice cream. lol

Ugh, I'm not sure I could ever go back to eating dairy now. Sometimes I even get a "mucous' cough from too much avocado, let alone dairy products.

[rawjojo]

I guess I am little nieve here but what is the difference between a kiwi or an aussie. It it just different sides of the country? I'm not sure! Thanks for enlightening me!
rawjojo

[RawTruth]

One is a New Zealander and one is from Australia.

[kiwikid78]

LOL. I've been asked some kind of variation of that question so many times: ie "Is NZ that little island at the end of australia?" "NOOOOOOO!! That's Tasmania. We are independant of Australia, just a hop skip and a jump across the Tasman Sea. And yes, we are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!"

And my favourite, of course. "have you ever seen any hobbits?".
Bless, Peter Jackson! :)

[rawjojo]

Well, have you???????????..............(hobbits)! ha-ha!