Gluten Free Land

Gluten Free Foods, Cafes, Restaurants and Recipes

Your country:
Your state:

Blogs about New Zealand Gluten Free

Blogs > New Zealand Gluten Free

Christchurch Earthquake

I hope my fellow Christchurch coeliacs are all safe and have plenty of GF food.


It's times like these that we are reminded how important it is to have a stock of non-perishable gluten free food.

tinned food


Thankfully things aren't as bad as they could be here and some supermarkets were even open today, while others had collapsed. As I mentioned on Facebook, if you're hankering for some gluten free bread tomorrow, Countdown Church Corner had a good amount of Burgen in stock this afternoon.

Posted by Rory on Sep 4th, 2010 under New Zealand Gluten Free | Permalink | Comments(1) | tweetTweet | facebookFacebook

Wellington Gluten Free Allergy Expo

The Gluten Free Food & allergy show is coming to Wellington this weekend.


The event is being held at the TSB Arena on the 28th and 29th of August and is well worth a look, especially if you've never been to one of these before. Gluten Free manufacturers will have loads of food to sample and heaps of special deals available only on the day. For more information on this event, see the gluten free allergy show websiteexternal link.

Posted by Rory on Aug 25th, 2010 under New Zealand Gluten Free | Permalink | Comments(0) | tweetTweet | facebookFacebook

Allergy Awareness Week

It is currently allergy awareness week 16-22 May 2010 and this year's theme is Allergies -no walk in the park


allergy week poster


Allergy New Zealandexternal link icon, organisers of the event, are primarily focusing on promoting awareness in the wider community this year. Allergy New Zealand broadly cover all allergies, however food allergies such as wheat allergy and coeliac disease are a major component of this and it's fantastic to have organisations such as this championing awareness for us.

You can find out more about the events on the Allergy NZ websiteexternal link icon. A particularly interesting initiative is the launch of a new allergy research fund. They are currently seeking donations towards this both in monetary and salable goods forms.

I also urge those of you in Auckland to attend the Gluten Free Food & Allergy Show 2010external link icon on the 29th and 30th of May. Note:I will only be emailing a reminder about this to those site members who have set their city as Auckland, as I have already recently mentioned this event in an all member email.

Posted by Rory on May 19th, 2010 under New Zealand Gluten Free | Permalink | Comments(0) | tweetTweet | facebookFacebook

Christchurch Gluten Free Expo

This weekend there is a gluten free expo in Christchurch on Saturday the 8th of May.


The expo is an annual event put on by a local supermarket with the small entry fee going towards coeliac disease research. The show hosts literally dozens of local gluten free producers who bring along loads of free samples to try -you won't be requiring lunch if you go!

If you're in Christchurch and have never been, I thoroughly recommend going along. In addition to the free samples, most of the exhibitors offer massive discounts on the day. I know a number of people who go along to stock up their pantries with gluten free goodies!

The event is at the Addington Raceway Metropollitan Lounge from 10am - 4pm. For more info, see the FreshChoice Gluten Free expo websiteexternal link.

[Update:]A different event, the Gluten Free Food and allergy show is being held in Auckland on the 29th and 30th of May at the ASB Showgrounds. Information on this event is available hereexternal link

This second event will also be coming to Wellington and Christchurch later in the year but we will remind you closer to the time.

Posted by Rory on May 4th, 2010 under New Zealand Gluten Free | Permalink | Comments(0) | tweetTweet | facebookFacebook

New Zealand: Gluten Free capital of the world?

Could it be that New Zealand is the most clued up country in the world when it comes to gluten? Or do we just turn to the web for anything we don't understand?


I have discovered that Google trends, a tool which gauges what people are searching for on Google is showing New Zealand as the top country per capita when it comes to searching for either the terms "Gluten"external hyperlink or "Gluten Free"external hyperlink!

image of New Zealand


This is very interesting indeed, however I am unsure what it really means. On the one hand, New Zealand exhibits a fantastic and rapidly growing ability to accommodate those of us on strict gluten free diets, but on the other hand, so is most of the world compared to a decade ago. I tried looking at other search engines, however Bing did not have any data for these terms and I could not find Yahoo!'s tool (if they have one). Perhaps you can weigh in with some more data or ideas in the comments?

Nevertheless, it's pretty cool and makes me want to delve further. Drilling down to New Zealand, it seems that Christchurch leads the way for Google searches of "gluten free", followed by Dunedin and Hamilton. For "gluten" alone, Christchurch and Dunedin swap places.

So what exactly is making everybody search for these terms? I live in Christchurch so perhaps could entertain some speculation. Perhaps the big green "gluten free" signs on our many branches of KB's bakeriesexternal hyperlink around Christchurch have got people wondering what gluten is, or perhaps it is a result of the amazing work being done around here by Dr Rodney Ford aka "Dr Gluten".

Whatever the reason, I thought it was a pretty cool achievement. What do you think? Feel free to post a comment.

Posted by Rory on Apr 25th, 2010 under New Zealand Gluten Free | Permalink | Comments(0) | tweetTweet | facebookFacebook