A new campaign hopes to change New Zealand’s drinking culture through the power of the written word.
Hello Sunday Morning, launched in New Zealand today, encourages people to give up the drink for a period of time and blog about their experiences.
Ambassador for the programme, Jazz Rowland told the New Zealand Herald that Kiwis have a real problem with alcohol.
“It's so ingrained in our culture, to go out and get drunk on a Saturday night ... we're just hoping to change that attitude towards drinking," she said.
The 25-year-old stuntwoman admits she used "drink to get drunk" but decided to give up alcohol for three months and was amazed by how much better she felt and how much more she got out of the weekend.
"Sunday is one of our biggest untapped resources; it's usually spent on the couch or not doing much because you're hungover. It's amazing what you can get done."
The programme, which was originally founded in Australia in 2009, is all about making use of Sunday mornings.
The programme has quickly gathered popularity in New Zealand with 370 people taking on the challenge so far.
Comedian Dai Henwood is among the Kiwis giving it a go, and he is on his final month with no alcohol.
"It's quite a feat, but it's a bit weird when you realise how much of a feat it is - you shouldn't think that taking three months off drinking is so hard."
Henwood said he wanted to take some time off the booze as an experiment and stumbled across the programme online, the New Zealand Herald reported.
He said blogging about it helped him stick to his sober goals because he did not want to let others down.
Today, Henwood, Ms Rowland and Mr Raine will bungy-jump off the Auckland Harbour Bridge to launch the programme in New Zealand.
"We want to show people you can do something crazy without having to drink," Ms Rowland said.
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