Whether someone chooses to follow a #Vegan or a plant based diet is a personal choice. We chose to change our diet with the aim of becoming more healthy ie 'you are what you eat,' combined with being more mobile and learning new things (like building a website 😂). This is not to say our diet is perfect because it isn't but we are trying to focus on reducing the ultra processed foods and eat more of the less processed food groups. (We still love a good plant based burger😂). So we want to share with you the Vegan Friendly Cafes: Our 17 Recommendations of Where to Eat Vegan Food in New Zealand
How Was It For Us?: Finding Vegan Friendly Cafes in New Zealand
We have been vegan for 8 years now and before that Michael has been vegetarian for 40 years. Trying to find places to eat that are vegan friendly is not always easy. Travelling around New Zealand in a campervan did mean we could make our own meals but we were on an adventure and as such wanted to try what New Zealand had to offer. We experienced the really good and the no choice whatsoever!
This guide is to share with you what vegan friendly places we found, where they were and what we thought of them so lets get into the detail!
In Summary: Vegan Friendly Cafes We Found Across New Zealand
Remedy Coffee: Auckland
The first thing to say is if you travel to Auckland as we did at the height of their Summer be aware that many cafes are closed from Christmas to 6th January (ish). This really makes it more challenging to find the right place to eat.
There are supermarkets with some vegan food available but the choice is very limited and relies on you being able to cook or have the utensils to prepare food and at this point we hadn't picked up our campervan. We didn't find any vegan sandwiches for example and many of the prepared salads were not vegan.
That said we did find Remedy Coffee following a recommendation from @CJExplores on Instagram.
Remedy Coffee is situated on Wellesley St in the city centre and is a very popular place. We were lucky to get a seat in the entrance; there were seats outside which were full but others were waiting for tables. There was a takeaway window outside too. We started with breakfast and coffee opting for avo on sourdough toast with tomatoes and a fab beans on toast but non of your Heinz Baked beans here! Costs:£22.50 for breakfast and £36 for lunch
Avo on sourdough 
Beans on Sourdough Toast 
Morning Coffee The food was so good we ordered a poke bowl each to take away for a picnic lunch later. That combined with a crusty baguette was delicious sat at the Marina watching the world go by.
Poke Bowl The Little Bird Kitchen Ponsonby
We found this little cafe in the heart of Ponsonby by default. Our campervan was not ready when we arrived to collect her (Lucy) and so after being given a loan car and told we would be reimbursed for lunch we drove to The Little Bird Cafe a fully #vegan cafe. This was a very popular place and offered a whole range of sweet and savoury options.
We had vietnamese crepes and purchased a whole range of sweet bakes to take away. We also bought some vegan feta in olive oil which we had on salads we made in the campervan. Costs £65 but this included a number of sweet bakes to take away and bottled juice
Seabreeze Holiday Park
This campsite is near the hot water beach on the North Island of #newzealand. It has a great restaurant serving hot food from woodfired pizzas to healthy bowls. The Family restaurant has really friendly staff and opens for the summer. Vegan options are available and the food is excellent. They also serve a great selection of beers and tasting paddles are fab. Cost: £40 for two meals and drinks
Paddle of Beer The Cozy Corner Lake Taupo
There was very little choice at Lake Taupo as this is essentially a fishing town. We did manage to find the Cosy Corner which had a couple of vegan choices. We had scrambled tofu and lentil stew. This was ok but it wasnt that tasty and so we would only recommend if you couldnt find another cafe. Costs: £34
5. Ajuna Eatery Napier
Napier was a fantastic place and they also had a fantastic cafe offering vegan food. Ajuna Eatery had prime position on the corner of the street with a pavement cafe area. Although this wasnt a fully vegan cafe it had vegan options and the food was really tasty. Definitely worth a visit. Costs: £37 for two
Tofu and Avocado Breakfast 6. Donegal House Kaikoura
Donegal House is an Irish Bar/Hotel in Kaikoura. It is steeped in history from when the Boyd brothers arrived from Ireland in the late 1860s. The menu looks to be non-vegan but the chef is very happy to make adjustments and creates the tastiest dishes so much so we decided to stay here 4 nights over the 27 days. We had pasta and a cauliflower and lentil curry. Perfect flavours accompanied by a pint of Murphy's and Sauvignon Blanc (from NZ of course). Costs: £55 inc drinks
7. Sime's Kitchen Kaikoura
We found Sime's Kitchen in Kaikoura the morning our Whale Watch Tour was cancelled. It was the perfect consolation as although we were eating a lot of avocado on sourdough its the combination of flavours which make the difference. This joined by a good cup of coffee set us up for the rest of the day. The avo toast was accompanied by vegan feta that was so tasty. Again we visited here twice during our tour. Costs: £36
Avo Toast 8. Hanmer Springs Water Park Hanmer Springs
Our trip to Hanmer Springs was to visit the thermal water park so we didnt get to visit any of the cafes in the town. The food court inside the park had vegan options so we opted for pizza and fries. They had vegan cheese to top the pizza too. We enjoyed the pizza sat in the covered food court watching the rain pour down outside. Costs: £26
Hanmer Springs Pizza Lunch 9. Monsoon Bar Franz Josef
Our campsite in the town of Franz Josef had a bar and restaurant on site called the Monsoon Bar. This had a great atmosphere and got really busy in the evening so I would suggest you book a table. We were there in the high season so not sure if its like this all year round. We had cauliflower steak which was tasty but when it arrived it was too cold to enjoy. Having returned it to be heated it came back and was perfect.
Costs: £46 for two
Cauliflower Steak 10. The Landing Franz Josef
After a busy day flying in a helicopter to the glacier and touring on a quad bike we needed a post bike tour snack. We stopped at The Landing where we had a delicious vegan snack with drinks. Had we not decided to cook that evening I think we would have tried the Landing for dinner. Costs: £30 for two
Snack time 11. The Big Fig Wanaka
Wanaka has lots of eating places but we found one called the Big Fig where you could choose your bowl size and the 5 or 6 items of hot and cold food. The tables were for sharing and so it felt very sociable. There was a real buzz in the cafe. Our food was good but we chose a large bowl and think a smaller one with less items would have been suficient. We are always wanting to try other peoples creations. Costs: £42 including drinks
Large bowl at the Big Fig 12. Charlie Browns Wanaka
Charlie Brown's is a caravan serving French Crepes both sweet and savoury and is very popular so the wait time can be 30-45 minutes. They serve vegan crepes which is a rarety and so we opted for the chocolate, banana and almond for our breakfast crepe. It was well worth the wait! Costs: £8 for one
13. Vudu Cafe Queenstown
Next stop Queenstown we found a cafe serving vegan food called Vudu. There were other places in Queenstown but they were all busy so we were glad to get a table in Vudu. We ordered two different meals so we could share both and we were not disappointed. Cost: £31 for two
Vudu Cafe 14. Bill Richardsons Transport World Invercagill
The cafe at the Bill Richardson Transport World was set like a 1950's diner. The food choice was limited but we could have an all day vegan breakfast which was large and they substituted any vegetarian elements. Costs: £33
15. Niagra Falls Cafe Niagra
The Niagra Falls cafe was our breakfast stop after we visited Curio Bay and saw the Hoiho Penguin. The weather was wet and a little cold so stopping in a warm place with character and warm service was great. We seem to have had a few full breakfasts but in truth they set us up for the day. Costs: £28 for two
16. Craftworx Oamaru
Oamaru the home of steam punk had a few eclectic shops and artisan small businesses. It was a Victorian town which had been preserved well. We stopped at the Craftworx pub for lunch and had a bowl of really tasty Iranian Stew. It was lentil based and came with a slice of crusty bread great for dipping in! Really wholesome food. Costs: £27 including drinks for two
The Raspberry Cafe Tai Tapu
Driving back towards Christchurch we stopped at the Raspberry Cafe. It was a Sunday morning and a busy cafe with lots of reserved tables. We sat outside and had a really simple breakfast of a bagel with raspberry jam. This together with great coffee was all we wanted. Attached to the cafe is a fruit farm selling raspberries and strawberries so we stocked up for the campervan. Costs: £16 for 2. We also spent £8 on berries.
Vegan Friendly Cafes: What's our Conclusion?
So I hope we have shown there are Vegan Friendly Cafes: with Our 17 Recommendations of Where to Eat Vegan Food in New Zealand. However, the choices are minimal and so we also found we cooked a lot. We found the supermarkets varied in their vegan offer with some having the usual burgers etc but some having nothing even though they were the same company. We did eat lots of salad with crusty bread but we also made pasta to eat watching the sunset on the beach or rice dishes and soup. You do have to make the most of your campervan for preparing meals and then really enjoy those places that have a vegan selection for you.
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