Your November Newsletter from Mobile Relocation

Loyalty & Reward Opportunities

Loyalty clubs are massive in Aotearoa New Zealand, both for saving money and getting rewards in exchange for data about your spending habits. Often membership is as easy as asking for a free card or downloading an app to your phone, and stacking allows you to take advantage of multiple discounts/rewards systems at once.

When you arrive on-shore, be sure to keep your eyes open for loyalty clubs, including these:

SUPER MARKET DISCOUNTS - New World (Clubcard), Countdown (OneCard), and Pak'n Save (Sticky Club) all have loyalty programs with varying rewards systems. Some store discounts only apply to members of the store's loyalty program. New World and Countdown also run promotions throughout the year and in the lead up to Christmas.
FLYBUYS - Earn Flybuys when you spend online or in person at participating businesses and then choose to be rewarded by shopping in the Flybuys store, getting fuel discounts, or dollars at select supermarkets. You can link your Flybuys account with your super market loyalty card and fuel discount card for extra discounts.
FUEL DISCOUNTS - BP (various rewards systems and AA Smartfuel discount), Caltex and Z (Pumped - partnered with Flybuys and Airpoints), Mobil (Mobil Smiles) offer varying rewards for customers. Stacking with partner loyalty schemes offers greater reward/discount.
AIRPOINTS - Air New Zealand offers a reward scheme called Airpoints. Earn points through travel, shopping with partner retailers, or using certain credit cards and spend points in the Airpoints store or on a variety of travel rewards. This can be stacked with discounts and loyalty clubs at supermarkets and petrol stations, most easily done by linking your accounts.
AA DISCOUNT - AA membership gets you a discount card called SmartFuel that can be used at a variety of partner retailers, including select petrol stations.
BANK REWARDS - Many banks in Aotearoa offer reward systems, including ANZ, BNZ, and Westpac. Some are affiliated with other reward schemes like Flybuys and Airpoints.

TOP TIP for getting a head start on rewards:

If you're going to be renting a vehicle for a while when you arrive, check out the reward scheme the company uses so that you can take advantage.
Before you buy your appliances or other major housewares, make sure you're set up to take advantage of loyalty and rewards schemes.

Cooking & Baking in Aotearoa New Zealand

For those of you who enjoy spending time in the kitchen, we're sharing some tips to help you transition your favourite recipes to your new home.

Measurements

Local recipes and packaging are typically in metric and based upon mass. Nonetheless, you will come across recipes calling for cups or tablespoons. It's a good idea to have both a scale as well as measuring cups/spoons to be able to adapt both ways. A handy conversion chart makes it simple to move back and forth as you feel comfortable.

Tip: remember that volume to mass measurements vary by item. For example, the same amount of flour and of butter have very different masses.

Cooking Like a Local

If you're looking for classic New Zealand recipes, look no further than Edmonds and their cookery books. Legend has it that an Edmonds is issued to each Kiwi when they leave home to go flatting.

New Zealand kai has a lot to offer, and there are cookbooks to guide you through just about every type cuisine from Māori food to kaimoana to raw eating to modern rustic homecooking.

You can take it a step further and enrol in a local cooking course, like Homeland or Savour.

Sharing Like a Local

We're a resourceful people, and New Zealanders routinely wash and reuse food containers. Friends tend to share food with each other in reused glass jars or ice cream tubs. It's a great way to extend the life of packaging and eliminate the pressure to return containers.

School Camp

With spring in full bloom, many schools are busy sending students off on camp, an extra special treat after the tradition was interrupted over the last one to two years.

Camp usually starts around year 6 (age 10) with one to three nights on camp. As they get older, students go on longer camps. Some camps involve outdoor activities at a camp facility (like shown above) with bunk rooms and dining hall arrangements. Other camps involve tramping or kayaking, sleeping in tents, and preparing food outdoors.

Each school will have its own traditions and its own way to prepare students in the years leading up to camp (for example, some do an overnight sleepover in the school hall the year before camp).

In New Zealand, school camp is a treasured rite of passage that leads to a lot of character and team building and memories that last a lifetime.

Words of the Month

In the spirit of food, we're sharing several food-related Kiwi terms this month.

Kai - Māori for food

Kaimoana - Māori for seafood

Ice block - frozen juice or ice cream on a stick

Chilly bin - insulated container to keep ice, drink, food cold on the go

Lolly - candy, typically in flavours other than chocolate

Fizzy drink - carbonated drink like soda

Snags - slang for sausage, especially cheap sausages to feed a crowd

Pav - slang for pavlova, a meringue-based dessert and point of national pride

Scroggin - mix of nuts, dried fruit, and chocolate bits to be eaten while tramping

Pudding - another name for the sweet bite after a meal (aka dessert)

Tea - another name for a snack (morning tea) or the evening meal