Our Weekend at The Health Food Live Expo

Over the weekend, my colleague Elliott and I went to our first ever Health Expo in the biggest smoke that New Zealand has to offer: Auckland. Obviously, we’ve been to Health Expos before because we’re health freaks but never as exhibitors and, I have to admit, I was nervous. Read on for a fun telling about our little adventure to the Health Food Live Expo.

We arrived on Friday, frantically zooming around in a rental car with the ever faithful Siri not-so-effectively leading the way. Being from little old Wellington, we took many a wrong turn on motorways and often ended up riding around in circles. People do not joke when they speak of Auckland traffic, it is definitely chaotic at times but that all adds to the experience, right?

Eventually, we arrived at our Airbnb on the North Shore. Pretty nice eh, right by the water too so we didn’t feel too homesick. On Saturday was when things really started to get serious. After an early morning start and copious amounts of coffee, we made our way to the North Shore Events Centre. It was 8:30 in the morning and things were already rather manic. After much fumbling around, with seasoned expo exhibitors looking on in amusement, Elliott and I managed to put together our cute little Justine’s Cookie stall.

Overhead on the loudspeakers, we hear the proclamation; “Alright exhibitors, the gates will be opening in 5 minutes”. I have, to be honest, I didn’t expect much activity in the first few hours but people were lined up and ready to rock and roll on into the expo at 10 am on the dot. We were a touch taken aback and I kept making the conversational error of saying ‘smell’ instead of ‘sell’ which was a tad uncomfortable but hey, we’re all human right?

The roof of the Expo also sounded like it might be blown away, it was a blustery, cold, and extraordinarily rainy day. It seems that you can take the girl out of Wellington but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the horrible weather isn’t going to stay in Wellington. Despite this, people kept on coming, they’ll do anything for their healthy food tasters!

It was a busy, busy day and by the end of it Elliott and I were both knackered and we hadn’t even had a chance to see any of the other stalls either!

Then Sunday came, we had a more relaxed start to the morning and were happy to see that the sun was shining. Auckland had finally delivered on its good weather promise! Sunday at the expo was a little more relaxed, not sure if it was because of the weather or what but it meant that we each got the chance to do a walk around. There was everything there that you could possibly imagine; dairy free ice creams and yoghurts, gluten free chicken nuggets, sauces, gluten free pies, a trampoline, protein powders, lunchboxes, and lastly, my favourite thing which was a hedgehog mascot. The kids liked that one too.

By the end of it all, the wafting smell of sauerkraut and kimchi from the stall next door had Elliott and I thought of nothing else. We left with three jars each.

So, overall, it was such a cool experience. I was a newbie to Auckland so it was neat to visit the City of Sails for the first time and we met so many lovely, health conscious people at the expo and it was so cool to talk to people about Justine’s Cookies. Some were avid fans and others had never heard of us, it was exciting to talk to both ends of the spectrum.