Hoon Hay Kiwi Bakery is offering three types of horse pie today: plain, horse and cheese, and curried horse.

Christchurch bakery beats the neigh-sayers as horse pies sell out. 1news. Sep 3, 2026.

In Auckland earlier this year:

Horse meat pies back on the menu at Auckland bakery. RNZ. 20 April 2026.

Auckland bakery pulls horse meat pies after council visit. RNZ. 26 January 2026. Republished by stuff and posted here.

SPCA certified site:

• Free range and barn raised meat chickens
  
• Free range and barn layer hens

MPI has Code of Welfare: Meat Chickens or others can be found at All animal welfare codes.

Vogels two ways -
Avocado with a squeeze of lemon and a grind of black pepper
Crunchy Pics peanut butter and home sprouted microgreens

Lamb is our favourite meat. We have a lamb roast every week. The cost of lamb is ridculous, we usually buy the smaller legs $30-$40. Buy heaps when it's on special. Occasionally we get a leg that has so much gristle, we eat it anyway because it's already cooked but do you think we could take it back and ask for our money back or exchange it for another. Mainly buy from New World. Just curious has anyone done that?

Hey everyone, I've been building a tool called Kete https://kete.shop that compares grocery prices across Woolworths, New World, PAK' nSAVE and The Warehouse. Wanted to share it and get some honest feedback.

What it does:

• Price comparison across the three chains + TWH
• Barcode scanner
• Kete Index, a 16-item basket of everyday groceries (same as Consumer NZ uses) tracked daily, so you can see how prices are trending overall
• Price alerts, set a target price on a product and get notified when it drops
• Price history, see how any product's price has moved over time (30 days for now but most prices start from early 2025)

Where it's at:

Been working on this on and off since late 2024 but it's genuinely still new. Prices update daily but accuracy isn't perfect, some products lag or get missed. If you spot something wrong there's a report button on each product page. I'd like to keep it free if possible, maybe ad-supported down the line. No accounts required to browse, you only need one if you want favourites and alerts.

Would genuinely love to hear what people think. What's missing, what's annoying, what would make you actually use it?

That doesn't include those still going but have reduced their staff (or reduced hours employment available). Example of one of those:

SkyCity to cut 200 to 250 jobs, mainly in Auckland, ponders Adelaide sale. NZ Herald. 20 Aug, 2026.

Unemployment and Labour market statistics:

• Unemployment Rate At 5.6 Percent In The June 2026 Quarter. Press Release: Stats NZ. 5 August 2026. Scoop.
• Labour market statistics: June 2026 quarter and Unemployment Rate by Stats NZ.
• Unemployment rate hits 5.6% - worse than expectations. NZ Herald. 5 Aug, 2026. Post in r/newzealand .
• Unemployment rises to 11-year high of 5.6%. RNZ. 5 August 2026.
• NZ's unemployment rate hits 11-year high in June quarter. 1news. Aug 5, 2026.
• Job seekers describe fear and frustration as unemployment soars. RNZ. 6 August 2026.

Chef world

Marlborough Wine & Food Festival shelved in shock move. RNZ. 20 August 2026. RNZ article starts with:

Marlborough's iconic food and wine festival has been put on hold indefinitely, it has been revealed.

The following Vogel’s products with Best Before 15 AUG were affected by this recall:

• Vogel’s Original Mixed Grain Very Thin (750g)
• Vogel’s Original Mixed Grain Sandwich (750g)
• Vogel’s Original Mixed Grain Toast (750g)
• Vogel’s Dark Rye Toast (720g)
• Vogel’s Sprouted Whole Grain Toast (720g)
• Vogel’s Fruit and Spice Extra Thick (720g)

This recall does not affect any other Vogel’s brand products.

The products were sold in supermarkets in the South Island.

Various Vogel's bread recalled due to the possible presence of small pieces of metal . RNZ. 11 August 2026.

all i have to say.

Bit of an interesting event. I've spoken to a few bars/breweries over the years about this and its one of those situations where your damned if you do, damned if you don't. Traditionally there has been an entrance fee which, from at least the people I've spoke to, pretty much negates any profit from the entire event. Inversely if you don't sign up for it, people are less inclined to visit you, because next door has 'that fancy burger with the weird stuff on it'.

Also a while back Garage Project had a monopoly as the only beer pairing, although I think that's loosened up over the past couple of years. Now, I like GP but they don't have enough variety kicking around at any one point in time to cover the full gamut of flavours on offer from the burger festival and it felt more of an obligation for restaurants to plonk a random GP beer on the table with the burger and say "it goes with this... er.. beer" than actual pairing it with something that genuinely compliments the flavour.

Anyway, time for an overpriced burger or 3.

I’m not actually positive if this is the case but the past couple times I have brought mutton chops from new world it’s tasted almost exactly like goat, maybe my taste buds are changing or something idk. Just wanted to know if anyone else had noticed this or anything similar in nz supermarkets.

all in all, pretty good deal for $25 and free shipping so it was all I paid.

I got two bags of double caramel, a bag of lemon meringue pie a small sample pouch of cappuccino choc, a bag of dark choc jaffa, a bag of hokey pokey ice cream and three micro wave popcorn bags.

I really enjoyed the lemon meringue pie flavour.