Hitching in kiwistan's far north

Start a 7:11 in mangonui, 15min wait, just started munching a sandwich, wooops, a lift by a tattoed maori ca30yr male in a beat up, comfy jap waggon, to Taupo Bay.
Not 10min later a great guy with a luxury classic car, electric adjustable seats, a nice aroma cup of coffee on the middle console -- hyperspaced me into Kaeo.
8:44 a working man, maybe a builder, took me to the Kapiro Rd turnoff to Kerikeri, we talked about religion and beer. I told him about Richard Dawkins and he complained about his wife. "anglican" .. "i don't mind service, you know, 20 minutes is fine, but theirs is four bloody hours,and then agian, in the evening, you know."
8:59 a business lady drives a detour to bring me to "great spot for hitchhiking", Kerikeri Rd. She warned me about Maoris, I warned her about Bankers.
Yey, another lift! I am now (10:07) sitting in a large aircon black SUV travelling with Wayne and the talk is about rewu alley kiwi china sympathy, russia and art. But mostly profit angloamerican bullshit. 10:16 and we are in Whangarei.
Mandarins in (book2read: "1421") destryed all records of voyages dalian-french colonial beautiful - schenzen 10mio not on map - huawei - surfboard factory in special sealed drainage zone - china is organising properly. Slave labour is now only in few places, all modern factories are 1a planned. 12:08 i'm in auckland. It's VERY prettty sky, water and it smells of strawberry. We westerners are snobbishly denigrating china habitually. That is my opinion,too. Case in point: i tell mike an he is off on a tangent about milk powder' and how new zealand's milkpowder exports to china are up (see below) because "nobody trust theirs anymore". Ho hum. Brasil is another great country to life in, wayne says. "the girls are pretty"...

NZ supermarkets ration baby formula due to Chinese buyers

January 15, 2010 by Shawn Douglas

chinese_baby_drinking_formulaNew Zealand supermarkets are rationing baby formula due to Chinese-New Zealanders buying it in bulk and selling it online to worried parents in China.

Chinese living in New Zealand have been selling baby formula online to Chinese citizens for months, taking advantage of widespread fears of contaminated formula in China.

Many people in China are still wary of Chinese-made formula after it was found that company San Lu had manufactured formula contaminated with melamine in 2008. The contamination was linked to the death of six children and illness in 300,000 children in China, leading to the bankruptcy of the company and the execution of two company officials.

Supermarkets like Countdown and Woolworths have caught on to the bulk purchases and set a strict four-can limit on formula purchases.

A spokesperson for Progressive Enterprises, the company that owns the supermarket chains, told the New Zealand Herald, “It’s pretty much a response to unfairness that we had with a lot of people stockpiling baby formula and selling it overseas. We appreciate why people are doing it, but our supply is for the domestic market.”

The New Zealand Herald interviewed Bruce Liu who runs a warehouse in Manukau City. Liu has been selling New Zealand-made Karicare baby formula over the Internet since last April. Using Web sites like taobao.com, Liu claimed that he’s been able to sell nearly 100 boxes of formula a week, profiting nearly $6,000 a month. But the recent store restrictions have slowed him down.

“So 80 percent of our time is spent going over all the supermarkets [to buy baby formula],” Liu said.

The Herald also interviewed Andy Liu (no relation to Bruce Liu) who has been selling five to ten boxes of formula a week on taobao.com, making $10 profit on each box. He also said that the store restrictions made things more difficult for him. Despite the restrictions, Bruce Liu still sees a demand.

“Because of what happened in China, with San Lu, people want New Zealand baby formula,” he said.

The Otago Daily Times reported that the New Zealand Food Safety Authority (NZFSA) was unaware of the thriving trade until the New Zealand Herald broke the story. As all food exported from New Zealand requires an export certificate from the NZFSA, there are additional concerns being raised about the practice.

“If it is a commercial venture and they are not getting certification from us, then its something we’ll look at,” said NZFSA senior program manager Neil McLeod.

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