weird thing about new zealand #1

it's difficult to predict how the availability and cost of a specific item will differ in new zealand, dependent as it is on a complex jumble of supply, demand, legal issues, transport costs, and various other economic factors. along the way, we've found out that milk is cheap while cheese is expensive, that mexican food items are often difficult to find while asian and indian foods fill a full supermarket aisle, that fast food here doesn't usually mean cheap food, and, most recently, that contact solution can only be found in pharmacies, not alongside the other rows of toiletries and medications in supermarkets and big box stores. it doesn't require a prescription or anything, but somehow it's been deemed unfit to be sold next to toothpaste and shampoo and toilet paper and ibuprofen and hair clips and cough drops and hand sanitizer and nail polish remover. no idea why.