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New Zealanders venturing overseas for the first time in a couple of years are seeing their hard-earned cash evaporating, as the Kiwi dollar dips to its lowest point against the US greenback since March 2020.
And those of us not travelling internationally are also likely to face higher prices for many every-day goods, from pharmaceuticals to phones.
The City That Never Sleeps is threatening to become the City That Never Eats for former RNZ reporter Rosie Gordon, who is subsisting on chickpeas and rice to make ends meet.
She arrived in New York on Tuesday to take up an internship at the United Nations, just as the New Zealand dollar plunged to 55.6 US cents.
"The exchange rate is horrific. For example I went to the supermarket today, did a very small shop and it was US$50 and that works out to be close to $90. So it's definitely a bit of an adjustment, so I'm thinking how I can do things for free and save money on food and other essentials."
She was already expecting to have to spend most of her wages on rent.
"So I was already planning on dipping into my savings to pay for food and other expenses, so the exchange rate makes that all the more stressful."
However, Brent Thomas from House of Travel said the low dollar was not slowing down demand.
Covid-19 had clipped people's wings for a couple of years, and Kiwis were desperate to fly again, he said.
"In fact the last couple of weeks have been record weeks this year and certainly even above 2019 levels. So certainly New Zealanders have a budget, they want to go on holiday, they've been two or three years since they could go overseas, so they're looking at what can they do for their holiday based on the funds that they have."
Thomas was expecting flights would get cheaper later this year, with more airlines set to return and the price of fuel falling.
Importers were not quite so sanguine about the fluctuations in the dollar.
Daniel Silva from the Importers Institute warned New Zealanders were in for a bumpy ride.
"When people think about the imports they tend to think about luxuries but they're not. Medicines, vitamins, machine parts, computers... it goes right across the board."
Businesses were already struggling with inflation and supply chain problems and the low dollar just amplified these pressures, he said.
As a tiny economy, New Zealand was at the mercy of what was happening globally.
However, Silva said it would help if the government reigned in its own spending after throwing around cash during the pandemic to keep the country afloat.
