Pain Medications in NZ
 

I was just reading a post on the Europe forum on what travellers take with them when travelling.
It made me stop and think. I do take a lot of preventative meds with me. But in NZ, what is the strongest pain killer available with out a prescription? I don't mean just aspirin, but the stongest for bad headaches. Maybe I don't have to carry so much with me!

Mmm gee wiz now let me think about this. I don't think there are available heavy pain medications in NZ seeing that they can get very readily and wonderful leaf which grows everywhere and which they just chew. You can tell which one as it grows everywhere there are sheep and you will see the sheep eating them too.

I thought you smoked the leaf, Liz.

...so, since we can't chance bringing our own, we can just go to the source and pick our own.

... smoking sheep - in which hoof do they hold the weed (ooops, leaf)?

Gave up smoking 18 years ago Neil - just chew it now.
Seriously though Kodi, Nurafen, Digesic and the like should be available but there is no reason why you cannot bring your own just as long as it is not in the form of hash.

Wow, who knew? Just go into any field where the sheep look "cool" and laid back and chew the leaves! It can't get any easier than that!
But seriously, thanks for the advice. I will bring my own ( pain killers, that is), but it's always good to know what I can buy in case of emergency, or if something should happen to mine.

The sniffer dogs at Auckland airport were in fine fettle when we last flew in, and as a result Customs had a fine crop of unhappy young travellers to search. I think very few are silly enough to arrive with a stash, but of course the dogs will pick up the scent of any tiny residues that may have lodged in the seams of a backpack. While I saw no sheep being detained, some of the backpackers looked a bit sheepish.

kodi, if you run out of painkillers all you'll need to do is talk to any pharmacist to find out what's most appropriate. You may not necessarily be familiar with all the brand names of meds sold in NZ - e.g. (assuming you're from the US) I'm pretty sure you won't see Tylenol on the shelves.

Any Pharmacist will know the ingredients of tylenol or any other medication if you take both the brand name of it and its Pharmacutical name if you know it.
Neil's comments are as usual, well mostly, spot on. Hi Neil :0)

Not "high Neil", anyway, Liz ... hi yourself!

High (er, hi) to both of you. I can't imagine anyone being so foolish as to try and bring anything into any country. I'm paranoid about my pain killers and will make very sure they are in the original prescription bottle. Sheesh, I even wrote to them about my fish oil capsules to make sure they were ok.
ANd from all I've heard, and the level of my excitement, just being in NZ will be an extreme high. I can't wait.

WHATEVER you do - declare any pharmaceuticals as Medicines - not as drugs!!

Hubby totally goofed and called his meds "Drugs". Boy did he have a lot of answering to do!!

Thanks, LN. I'll make sure I don't use the word 'drugs'. That's all I need is to maek a good like that!

Paracetamol (like Tylenol) is called Panadol in NZ. There is a stronger version called Panadeine which combines paracetamol and codeine. Sometimes you have to ask at the chemist shop (drugstore) for this but don't need a prescription. Nurofen is ibuprofen and very effective for bad headaches. In Australia you can not get Nurofen Extra which is ibuprofen/codeine, not sure if this is in NZ yet.

Like jjester, I've found Panadol and Panadeine in many countries right on the shelf and easy enough to purchase. As mentioned, one sometimes has to ask for the one that has codeine, but still no script is required. If this is available in NZ it's a good alternative, but realize that the amount of codeine is small, maybe only 7-8mg, versus say Tylenol3 (Codeine3) or Tylenol4 (Codeine4) which has 30mg-40mg in the States and reason script is required. If you find Panadol or Panadeine, just don't overdose even on the small amounts of codeine contained in these.