New Zealand Takeaway Championship

I mentioned this in an earlier post but I've found something I want to learn more about in the last couple weeks I'll be in NZ.

"Takeaways" or as they're better known back in the States, ice cream treats.... strawberry shortcake, ice cream sandwiches, drumsticks, drumsticks with almonds, drumsticks filled with caramel, push-pops, eskimo pies, skinny cows, fudgesicles, moon pies, you name it, we all know them and remember them fondly.

Why?

1. I like ice cream as much or more than anyone I know. In my prime (yes, I had an ice cream prime) I had to restrain myself from finishing a half gallon in less than 3 bowls (at one bowl per night). I never got tired of it. I never felt full/sick. Never. Even in high-school when I put down 3/4 of a gallon as part of challenge. I could have had more. Some of you might say, "I know what you're saying. You're preaching to the choir. The only way I can contain myself is to not buy it." That's not an option for me. I merely accept that ice cream and I will never part ways.
2. Takeaways, odd name right? Even stranger when I tell you that I worked on a lot of takeaways at my old job. Different takeaways though. Working at the advertising agency, WDCW, on the T-Mobile account, it was one my curses privileges to work on takeaways, or as you might call them, brochures. coverage, rate plans, prepaid, data, mobile broadband, if there was a takeaway, I worked on it. So was it merely coincidence that when I got to NZ, I realized that my favorite food was the name of something I used to work on so much? I didn't think so either.
3. I'm not sure of the actual statistical place takeaways hold in NZ's commerce (i.e. how much revenue they generate) but I think it's huge. Every town, regardless of size, has at least one takeaway store and they're covered in advertising.When I used to work at that agency, one of my responsibilities as an account exec was to brief our creative team on projects. I was terrible at this it but one of the most important parts was that the messaging hierarchy. A messaging hierarchy tells you what points the advertiser wants to get across and in what order of priority. With this in mind, every gas station, every grocery store, even coffee shops seem to really want to push these takeaways because they are, at the lowest, the #2 thing I see. At a gas station, you see the brand (colors/logo) and then you see ice cream advertising. It's insane. Keep in mind, I might have slight tunnel vision sometimes.
4. The branding of takeaways is much different than any ice cream advertising I've seen before. As you'll see from our first group, it's targeted much more to adults. It's sexy, mysterious and strong. They're like commercials for high priced alcohol in the States. It's weird.

Goal?

To figure out what the best takeaway in NZ is.

How?

There are many different types/forms and brands of takeaways, just like in the States. Cones, on sticks, sandwiches, you get the picture. I've decided to approach it like a dog show. Group A, B, C. take the winner of each and reevaluate for the "best in show" award. I'm breaking them up by brand. each takeaway will be eaten and scored (1-5, 5 being the highest) based on 4 categories (creativity, presentation, flavor and overall taste). Top score wins. in the case of a tie, the tie-breaker is overall taste.

Side-notes:

1. I feel a little bad about doing this given the places I'm going next and the value or food and calories for people around the world. It's terrible that I'm about to gorge myself like this. I feel truly gluttonous for the first time in my life and I'm a embarrassed and ashamed just thinking about. There are up to 400 calories in one of these takeaways.
2. I feel bad about spending the amount of money I will on this project. An average takeaway cost $3.
3. In order to sample all available takeaways and report by June 3, most days I will need to consume at least two takeaways.

Without further adieu...

MAGNUM

Easily the most regal takeaway brand in the competition (just wait until you see the names...). To my knowledge, they're not available in the US but they are seen throughout Europe and other countries.

GOLD?!

Why the question mark and the exclamation point? it seems dumb but it worked, I'm intrigued and excited.

Hopefully you can see this but we're looking at a double-dipped takeaway here. Gold on the outside (no discernible taste) and chocolate on the inside. Right out of the gates, it really knocked me off my feet. I'm rather experienced with the art of consuming a treat that has been covered in chocolate so normally there aren't many casualties but the double layer surprised me and I lost a big chunk of gold. The actual ice cream itself was vanilla with a very well rounded caramel flavor. Not overpowering but very smooth and distinguishable.

creativity: 4

presentation: 4

flavor: 4

overall taste: 5

total: 17

PEPPERMINT

Your standard peppermint affair here. Peppermint flavored ice cream dipped in chocolate. The peppermint flavor was a little too fake/strong and there wasn't anything else to it. Apparently peppermint ice cream is unheard of in NZ. nonetheless, I was not impressed.

creativity: 1

presentation: 2

flavor: 2

overall taste: 2

total: 7

SANDWICH with almonds

I expected sandwich and got half sandwich, half dipped. Brilliant. They even took it up a notch from there and added almonds to the dipped part. the pairing of of dipped cone with almonds to sandwich cookie was very well done. The cookie wasn't too crisp or crumbly either. Good execution.

creativity: 5

presentation: 4

flavor: 4

overall taste: 4

total: 17

Ego caramel

Gutsy name for an ice cream treat and it tasted like they came up the with name first and the flavors second. They tried a little too hard here.

Chocolate layer, rich/thick caramel layer, chocolate layer, vanilla ice cream. The caramel was too powerful and too rich here. That's all there was too it. Great concept though.

creativity: 5

presentation: 4

flavor: 3

overall taste: 2

total: 14

ALMOND

It is what it says it is and there's something to be said for that. Almonds add a richer, smoother, more subtle flavor than the american peanut does to ice cream treats. Its classic with a spin. I dig it.

creativity: 4

presentation: 3

flavor: 4

overall taste: 5

total: 16

CLASSIC

Classic, we all know it. Vanilla ice cream dipped in chocolate.

creativity: 1

presentation: 3

flavor: 3

overall taste: 4

total: 11

BIG CHOC BIKKIE with crunchy biscuit pieces

I think they should come up with some better words than "bikkie" and "biscuit", maybe it's a cultural thing I don't understand but I think you could find better words.

Finally, a chocolate interior! I was beginning to wonder if it existed. I don't know if it was the change of pace (with chocolate) or the overall flavor but this was good.

creativity: 4

presentation: 3

flavor: 4

overall taste: 5

total: 16

WHITE

White chocolate exterior with vanilla interior. It was good white chocolate though. Really good.

creativity: 4

presentation: 3

flavor: 4

overall taste: 4

total: 14

That's it. That's all of them. The winner...GOLD?! It was a tie though with Sandwich but GOLD?! won on overall taste points.

Nicely done MAGNUM. Feel free to step into the U.S. market anytime you get a chance but you might rethink some of the names (specifically, Ego).

looks like somebody's got a case of the mondays...

most of you probably know that scene from "Office Space" where everybody keeps saying, "looks like somebody's got a case of the Mondays!" and it's really annoying and depressing? i can't say that i had a "case of the Monday's" today but it was definitely one of the worst days of the trip so far.

i got up early to drive to Gisborne, a renown surf spot on the east coast of NZ. a huge storm system has covered most of NZ and this place is just about the only spot not getting dumped on. but when i rolled in, most of the surf spots were all blown out with 20+mph winds. i found one spot though and hopped in. it looked like a nice, sandy beach, kids out in the water and everything but on my way out i kicked two rocks boulders really hard with my left foot. i kept trucking though and after i got out past the break, checked out my foot. for the 1/2 second i could see everything, it looked okay but felt a little funny. after i got back on the beach i noticed it was bleeding. not bad and it isn't the first time i've kicked a rock bled a little out there. as my foot started to thaw from the cold water though it really started to hurt. i broke a toe once when i was a kid playing tag in my grandma's house. i think i just broke another. it's not that bad though. it's just a toe.

add to that though, i was putting away my gear and noticed one of the fins on my board was wobbly for some reason. looking at it more closely i realized the finbox is ripping out of the board. that's bad. that's really really bad. i've heard of it happening before but never personally had to deal with it. i don't know what it'll cost but it has to be fixed because the board will get water-logged if it isn't and that pretty much ruins a board. this is going to kill the resale value of that board. i'm not as okay with this as i am about the toe. we'll see what a repair shop has to say about it tomorrow.

other than that, here are some pictures from the last couple days. i crossed into wellington. stayed for a day, left when it was pouring (and the city is now flooded) and drove up the east coast. stayed in Napier one night and tonight i'm in Gisborne.

Wellington from Mt. Victoria

Napier sunrise

blown out surf in Gisborne

NZ complaint: this is probably the best year of NBA basketball in the last 15+. for much of my memory of the league, it's been like watching selfish pick-up games at the local gym but with very gifted athletes and much less heart. at least the pick-up games are filled with guys reliving their hay-days but 10lbs heavier and with no touch and more intensity than ever before. but now that's all changing a bit, especially in the playoffs where guys seem to actually care. anyway, i really wanted to watch the first game of the Bulls vs. Heat today. NZ has four sports channels, Sky 1, Sky 2, Sky 3 and ESPN. it's rare for a household to have these channels but there's usually at least one sports bar in town with them. i walked in and asked, we flipped through the channels and were rewarded with rugby, cricket, talking heads and a MLB day-game. really NZ? no love for NBA playoffs? there is a pro league in NZ for basketball but not for baseball. nobody in NZ plays baseball, they play crickett or tennis if they're good at hitting stuff. how does this happen? it was monday at 3 in the afternoon! i bet there are many countries far less technologically advanced than NZ that had that game on. maybe this is more of an issue with the NBA than NZ. maybe NZ is just waiting for the NBA to prove itself again before they start showing the most physically gifted athletes in the world loafing around half-heartedly playing a game for millions more than they need and millions of people loving them for it.

Go Thunder Sonics!

parking tickets - take notes America

normally, the amount of new news wouldn't be worthy of a post but this is worth it.

i got my first parking ticket yesterday in Wellington. Wellington is the capital of NZ and easily the 2nd largest city in the country so parking downtown is a bit of a challenge, especially in a van, and its usually metered.

i got a ticket because my time expired (by ~2hrs).

the fine was $15 NZ. that's about $11 US.

on top of that, my options for payment include online, by mail, in person and get this... the post office. how genius is that?!?!

there you go America, let us pay our parking tickets at more convenient locations and lets reduce that fine a bit. please have this in place by the time i get home. thank you.

west coast with company

i left Queenstown on sunday and headed north up the west coast of the south island with a little over three weeks to go and found some friends along the way. next stop was Franz Josef and the huge glacier there.

about an hour outside Queenstown i picked up two hitch hikers looking for a ride to the same place i was headed.

meet Lotta (left) and Vera (right) from Sweden. they're step sisters traveling NZ together at the age of 22. both have done a ton of traveling in their lives and are headed for university when they get back home, Vera for engineering and Lotta for architecture.

the swedes ended up being perfect travel buddies for the last couple days of the trip. we ended up hanging out in Franz Josef together and then 3 more nights as we made our way up the coast. they've got about 3 weeks left in NZ with an itinerary that crosses over with a couple spots i have on my list so hopefully i catch them again. they sent me on my way with an iTrip for my iPod that they had gotten from some guys while in South America, now i have to find somebody to pass it on to when i'm done with my trip.

Franz Josef
small climbing town with a huge glacier that just about runs into the ocean. within 300ft of sea-level you're on the glacier pretty much. i took a guided tour of the glacier. they gave us all the gear for the day and the guides even cut in steps pretty much the entire route.

guides cutting in steps with these pitch-axe looking things that were invented in early 1900's and haven't changed since.

Punakaiki and Pancake Rocks
after 36 hours and two days in Franz Josef i headed to Punakaiki and the Pancake Rocks up the west coast with the Swedes. it was a long, winding, beautiful drive. we ended up at a small hostel on the beach that felt like you were in somebody's home.

pancake rocks

grass in NZ is actually jelly beans. it's their second largest export.

cheers

hostel and weird handjestures

view

the Swedes really enjoyed college stories from the U.S. i made sure to tell the ones that were as close to how it represented in the movies as possible.

Takaka and Golden Bay
another long day of driving got us to Takaka and Golden Bay in the NW corner of the south island. along the way we took a quick detour to Westport to check out a sea lion colony and stumbled across a quiet little surf spot. i took a 90 session with the locals while the Swedes went for a run and studied. my surfing skills have definitely progressed with longer rides and i can easily turn and trim on a wave now and i'm hoping that only gets better with more time spent in the water on the north island.

anyway, the drive to Takaka from Westport takes you up through 2 mountain passes, the second of which drops you down into the Takaka valley on a road with 23 hairpin turns (fun in a car, not fun in a camper van).

the next day we headed out for Farewell Spit and Golden Bay. I have had a lot of people tell me its the most amazing place they've seen in NZ so far so the expectations were high and they were met. the beach was really isolated with huge rocky cliffs, monoliths and sea lion colony that we were able to get really close to. the majority of the pictures are courtesy of the Swedes because my camera battery died when we got out to the beach.

think of the greenest pasture/grass you can imagine and you'll be 1/2 way to how green these were. it was amazing.

we were a little surprised that the fence wasn't attached to the ground, just wires and posts.

the sea lion colony was the highlight, with the tide out, we found a little swimming whole for a mom and her five pups. sitting quietly and patiently rewarded us with some really curious pups that got close enough i easily could have touched them.

curious pups

you can barely see the sea lion in the background but that's the mom coming to check in on the kids. the Swedes were on the other side of the tide pool and thought it was a great opportunity for a picture without telling me she was back there. they eventually told me and mom didn't mind me much.

yoga with sea lions

mom and the pups off to get back in the ocean.

i got back to the north island yesterday night. the three week to-do list includes raglan for a couple days, mt. taranaki, bay of islands and north of there, the coromandel peninsula and napier/gisborne. i doubt i'll have enough time to see it all but it's worth a shot.

my volunteer assignment for Nepal was finalized this week. i'll be working in Panauti in the Kavre region of Nepal, a semi-rural town 35 km east of Kathmandu (the capital city) teaching English to children under the age of 10. the whole idea of visiting Nepal and working there just became very real to me and very overwhelming to think about.

i bought my plane ticket to nepal today too. i leave NZ on June 3 and arrive in Nepal on June 6. I'll have a 2.5 day layover in Singapore on the way. Singapore is supposed to be a really easy and amazing place to visit.

i looked into booking my ticket to Kenya from Nepal but the only options were with layovers in Dubai, Bahrain and Bangkok. considering Bahrain and Dubai were listed under travel alerts by the U.S. State Department recently, i'm going to pass on those. i didn't buy that ticket yet but i will have to show proof that i'm leaving Kenya before i fly in.

NZ Takeaway Championship
i've found point of interest to keep me occupied over my last couple weeks in NZ. it's a little daunting and sickening but i'll have a post specific for it in the next couple days.

videos

i'm finally in  a place where i can upload some videos from the trip so far.

if you want to see them bigger, double-click on the window and it should open a new web page with the video larger.

the start of Tongariro Crossing outside Taupo on the North Island of NZ

Mt. Doom summit

Lylle Beach surf spot, Wellington

Milford Sound boat ride home

Arthur's Pass drive

Mt. Cook peaks and glaciers

City Slickers III, New Zealand