I had been planning my gap year since I was ten years old, and if I could have dropped out of Primary School then and travelled I certainly would have. Looking back now, those next eight years of school and then college flew by. Everyone around me began to pick Universities and courses they wanted to study after summer break, seeing this as the obvious next step in their lives. But not me, I knew I was free. I had been stuck in the same town and School since I was three years old and it was time to see the world.
The idea of travelling to New Zealand (NZ) had been stuck in my head since I was young, due to a family friend having moved there. She was working for the Department of Conservation (DOC) in Turangi, and her partner ran the Tongariro Natural History Society (TNHS) in the same building. All I knew was that both their jobs involved working in the outdoors, and that was me hooked. I applied for a position with TNHS, and after being accepted set about applying for a working holiday visa.
A working holiday visa for NZ can last up to 23 months, although you can actually only work for 12 of these months. I applied online for mine through STA Travel, and received it within weeks. I also booked my flights and travel insurance with them too. In recent years I have used Flight Centre to book all my flights, as they thoroughly search for the cheapest deals.
When choosing travel insurance, be sure to note what you want it to cover. NZ is full of adventure activities such as sky diving, bungee jumping and white water rafting. Basic travel insurance covers grade three white water, so if you injure yourself on a grade five river you cannot claim. Travel insurance can be expensive, but is certainly necessary.
After four months in Ethiopia with a friend, I flew to NZ, arriving in Auckland airport at the end of December. That first notion of being on your own is crazy, after eighteen years of being told what to do and then suddenly it is all up to you. Fight or flight. I remember feeling quite pleased with myself when I discovered the Airbus that went direct to Auckland city centre, and stopped outside the backpackers I had booked into. (It was actually the only mode of transport into the city apart from a taxi)!
If in doubt with anything in an airport, just ask at airport information or tourist information as there are lots of staff around to help, and they are perfect at dealing with people new to travelling and airports.
On the bus my body began to crash from lack of sleep, as I attempted to concentrate on the sights and sounds of Auckland. I had been flying for twenty something hours and had not slept much, but luckily I did not have to wait long for my stop.
There is an abundance of backpackers, hotels and motels in Auckland, looking online shows a wide variety of places to stay who cater for all your required needs. Popular chains around NZ include Base Backpackers and YHA, both offering discount cards and nightly events for cheap prices. Last year I had the pleasure of escorting my sister to NZ, and our flight arrived in Auckland at the ridiculous time of 12.30 at night. I searched for a backpackers close to the airport, and found the Skyway Lodge. I emailed them in advance, and they were happy to pick us up even though it was late.
Upon checking in at the backpackers, I discovered that I had left my passport on the bus...”oh ****”, what an idiot. I frantically phoned Airbus’s office and the airport police in a frantic attempt to find it, but to no avail. It was New Year’s Eve and everywhere was in party mode, so instead of freaking out I decided to just go with the flow and managed to befriend some kiwi girls to go drinking with. I hung around in Auckland for a few days after that trying to find my passport, but with limited places to look and the probability of it containing a new photograph of a supposed me; I jumped on an Intercity bus to Turangi. www.intercity.co.nz
Turangi is the trout fishing capital of New Zealand, or so the sign claims, (suspiciously the town of Gore states the same). The Rough Guide to New Zealand says that it “is a small, flat and characterless place”, and I guess it may be to the untrained eye, but I love Turangi. I spent just over three months there tramping around its bush, conserving its wildlife and swimming in the glacial river. A definite must do is walk the hour long circular track around lake Rotopounamu, at the base of Mount Pihanga . TNHS volunteers have made this piece of bush what it is today by working hard to eradicate foreign predators, and keeping native bird numbers up.
I did eventually get my passport back, and felt very guilty about making assumptions about it being stolen. Not every country is made of bandits! It happened days after arriving in Turangi and because I had not had any luck in those first few days, I had cancelled it and started making arrangements to get an emergency one. (This can all easily be done online or by telephone, do not panic)! Literally a few hours later, a PC Bradley from the Auckland airport police phoned TNHS (after phoning my parents in the UK their 2am) and said it had been handed in and what address to send it on to. It gave my parents quite a shock as I had not actually told them about the passport drama, and having the NZ police phone randomly during the night cannot have been very comforting. Oops lesson learnt, luckily everyone saw the funny side.
For travellers I would say Turangi would be more of a brief stop off, than a place to stay with it being only half an hour away from Taupo. The Mustard Seed Cafe makes a good lunch stop, and the Liquorice Cafe (just outside of Turangi on the Taupo side), does an amazing iced coffee. For a bit more adventure, contact the Tongariro River rafting office.
Turangi is situated in the Tongariro National Park, and from the town you can carry on to National Park, Whakapapa and Mountains Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe (Mount Doom, Lord of the Rings). A must do for walkers is the Tongariro crossing, and for those who are extra keen, a jaunt up the scree that is Ngauruhoe is fun if only for the slide back down!
TNHS’s season ended at the beginning of April, and I found myself on an Intercity bus to Taihape in search of River Valley: I was to be their new bar girl.
River Valley is located a forty minute drive out of Taihape, which proves difficult to get to if you arrive without a car. Luckily the day I arrived a member of staff was in town getting gas as the staff assured me I would have been left there until something from town was required! The Kiwi Experience bus also stops there nightly.
River Valley is a big lodge nestled at the bottom of a lush, green valley, with the mighty Rangitikei flowing through. It is a beautiful, serene place with a great vibe: a perfect contrast of relaxation and adventure.
White water rafting was a new concept to me entirely; I had not seen much grade 5 white water before then. The first time I mentally prepared myself for rafting, we got halfway up to a lookout point and discovered the river was too high for our trip to be adjured safe, and we had to abort. The second trip was better as we actually got the rafts into the river, but the water level was really low. I remember thinking rafting was not really all that, even ‘boring’ may have crossed my mind. It was definitely third time lucky for me, and this trip completely nullified my previous thoughts. The river had risen to a very substantial level, and at the bottom of a rather ‘extreme’ rapid our raft was caught on a rock and another raft ploughed into and over the top of the bow. Literally a minute before a friend had asked if I wanted to swap places, and the place that had doomed to be mine was now empty, and people were in the water, cavorting downstream. I just sat there staring at the emptiness, vaguely hearing our guide Darryn yelling back paddle. Now I am addicted!
River Valley has been in the press a lot lately, for an incident that occurred a few years ago. The guides are highly trained, but it is an adventurous activity and there are obviously elements of risk that occur, especially in Grade 5 white water. On a lighter note the Rangitikei is an amazing river to experience, and the gorge it winds through holds beautiful New Zealand fauna and flora with the extra special opportunity of maybe spotting a deer or pig. There are not many rafting companies arranged in such a way that you finish at the lodge, and are able to jump straight into a hot shower.
Everyone has their own unique memories of River Valley, mine were definitely the people. I met some amazing friends from all over the world who I have gone on to work, live, party and even fall in love with.
From the Rangitikei River I went to Mount Ruapehu, and slept on a friend’s floor for a few months and attempted learning to snowboard. Ruapehu opens its doors for the ski season around June/July, and remains open until early Spring offering many job opportunities. Many avid snow orientated travellers work in rentals, operate the ski lifts, serve in its cafes and even teach people to ski and board. Both the north and south islands have ski fields, and are always looking for workers, and even on occasion offering visas to those who keep returning.
As summer approached and the snow melted, I decided to follow some raft guides to the south island and the Rangitata River, which runs through Peel Forest. The village of Peel Forest is about a two hour drive from Christchurch, turning off at Ashburton or a twenty minute drive from Geraldine if you come up from the south. The road in is flanked by farm land, field upon field of cattle, sheep deer and swede. The village is a consecutive line of houses occasionally interrupted by a native tree, with the Musterer’s Bar and Cafe at the centre, which is also the local store.
Driving further on you reach the bottom of Little Mount Peel, and the start of an array of beautiful walks. A main reason for people visiting Peel Forest is for its DOC walking tracks, which vary in length and difficulty from a half hour walk to discover Peel Forests “Big Tree”, to a six hour hike up Little Mount Peel and back. Doc also owns a large campground near the river, which is open from late August to April.
Other outdoor activities in Peel Forest include horse trekking, and white water rafting. White water rafting on the Rangitata River is a very different experience from the mighty Rangitikei. The Rangitikei is low volume and technical, where as the Rangitata is high volume grade 5. Meaning no matter what the river flow, the Rangitata always has two grade 5 rapids. It also holds the longest grade five white water rapid in New Zealand, which goes by the name of ‘the pinch’. Expect action packed, and yes, you are going to get wet!
I left New Zealand at the start of winter that year, and headed back home. Two years later and I am back again, I missed the relaxed lifestyle, endless rainforests and mountain ranges too much. What began for me as a travelling adventure has turned into a way of life; New Zealand will always hold a special place and a home for me.

Hi, my name is Jan Mencner and I am from the Czech Republic.We decided with my girlfriend Nela to explore New Zealand, becouse, according to us, it’s very amazing country with beautiful nature and nice people…

We departed from the Czech republic in october 2009 and we made one month trip in Thailand. After arrival we had booked the Ponsonby Backpacker. We have used the shuffle bus from airport, which can take you door to door for one-time fee 25 dollars per person.

I was trying to choose my bank thorougly for couple of days and finally the ANZ bank won, becouse this bank has the biggest network of branches and cashmachines. You pay only 5 dollars monthly fee and that’s it! No further fees! It is something unimaginable in the Czech republic! Great

Next step was to buy a car. We made a big trip (it was more like Great Walk) around Auckland to get some good reliable car (not a lemon, like couple of our friends) – but everything was so old with scary milage and for big money! Crazy! Finally we’ve been saved by carmarket in Elerslie. We were trying to find something good from early morning, but we were disappointed until noon – in this moment we were approached by one car tout that he apparently has good van exactly for us.

This perfect car was Nissan Serena 2.0 petrol 4WD, but there wasn´t a bed – but we´ve been told by seller it is not a problem to do it – so we had to wait until next day…. We checked the car and we did the test drive – everything seemed to be alright so we paid a deposit. The seller brought us our new Nissan next day to a backpacker, already with bulit-in bed inside.

Today, 6 months later, i have to say the car is still awesome – there weren´t any problems! So, great technical condition, 1995, 3rd owner for 4.000 bucks! However we got a lesson – november is the worst month to buy a car – becouse everything is so expensive and only few cars on sale!

After one week what we have spent in Ackland we scooped direction to Hastings. We were expecting ubiquitous signs: We need workers! – but we were disappointed. There was nothing! We were trying to call everywhere and we have tried to find something on internet as well… So, finally we found a job on Mr. Apple´s orchard in Waipawa. We have been thinning apples – it was pretty good job, we´ve been living in comapny´s camp in orchard (by the way, the camp is awesome!) and we got quite well paid… We´ve been satisfied anyway

Closely to x-mass thinning was terminated and we went to the north… We were wondering about that long time, becouse everybody wanted to go to the south island – and we (we – it means me, Nela and our new fried Tomas from camp) went to the north paradoxically, because it seemed to us can be crowded there on the south island…

We started to work in Kerikeri in the middle of January and we´ve been thinning kiwifruits – i must recommend this, it is cool job You are in the shade all day under the kiwifruit bush – and – you don´t have to use the ladder!!

We returned to Waipawa in early March – there was starting the apple picking. We´ve been working for hourly wage first week and everything was fine. But next couple of weeks were crazy! We´ve been paid only for count of bins we have done, and there were a days, when we have done only one bin for 40 bucks, becouse there were no apples!! It was fourth pick of royal gala variety… And we said: „Stop!“ in the moment, when we had only 100 dollars each on our payslips for a week of hard work! By law the company is obliged to pay each worker the minimum wage, and no amounts of bins! Its very sad, but i can´t recommend this copany for the picking!

Almost all staff quit like we and went to a different parts of this beautiful country. And now, we are working in packhouse for hourly wage and we are satisfied

Some tips from me:

There is a problem to get the car insurance for backpackers. AA offers a advantageous products only for residents and other companies are similar. But we found this: http://www.bbh.co.nz/default.aspx?pid=15

You can extend your working holiday visa for another 3 months with no problem…

When you put your car to the service just stay there with mechanic. It happend to us – we paid for wheel alignment and mechanics didn´t do that! We had to tell to boss it, he tested the car personally – he found out is is true and after they fixed it!

We also can recommend to buy AC/DC transmitter, which you can connect instead the car fighter – it is good to have a czech plug for laptop or cellphone charging.

Hi everyone! I would like to share my Working Holiday experience in Kiwi Land as well.
My name is Agnese and I’m from Latvia (in case you don’t know where it is – Europe, Baltic States, between Estonia and Lithuania, with beautiful capital city called Riga; No, we aren’t part of Russia anymore and Yes, we do have our own language - Latvian). The Working Holiday Scheme with New Zealand opened only in March, 2009, so – for us it’s a pretty new thing, but I’m happy to know that more and more Latvians are applying for it and going for this lifetime adventure.

I think getting a Working Holiday Visa (if your country has such thing with NZ) is more or less the same – quite easy. You just go to Immigration Service web page – www.immigration.govt.nz and follow instructions: fill the application form, try to persuade Immigration Service that you haven’t done bad things in past (in a meaning - testify you haven’t been in a jail or something), might need to go see a doctor and get a Temporary Entry X-ray Certificate, wait for while until Visa is approved (for me it took 2 weeks, as I have heard for others - only 3 days), save some money, get flight tickets and here you go – welcome to New Zealand. Easy – peasy, but it’s just the beginning…

Then comes all the arrangements and sometimes confusing you-need-to-do-this-and-this regarding finding a work, place to live and actually starting to work. If your financial situation allows, then I would suggest that you do some traveling first and then find a place to settle down for a while rather than doing the other way around. Sometimes you can stuck in one place for a long time and afterwards feel sorry that your precious time here in this country starts to run out, but there is still so much to see and do.

But when you start to look for a work there are two things that you should do first – get bank account and IRD number. There are many ways how can you get these 2 things (it depends if you have already a sort of ‘permanent’ place to live and 2 international ID’s – passport, international driver’s license or international ID card). I had only my passport, so I went to BNZ, gave them address of my hostel where I was staying at that moment, deposit some money, opened bank account and asked them to hand out a statement of my current address. With this statement I went to nearest Inland Revenue Service, filled application form and after 2 weeks received my IRD number. If you need to know it faster, you can call them and ask for it on the phone.

Regarding finding a work…well there is no super-duper/overall advice, sometimes it takes time, patience and determination and sometimes just a little bit of luck. So far I have worked in two places and the ways how I found them are quite opposite. I was on South Island and went to Christchurch which is the biggest city there, so it should be easy to find a work there, right? But the thing is that there are thousands of other travelers that think the same way, lots of them are heading to Christchurch for this reason. And then there are students, who look for summer jobs as well, so competition is quite high. But it depends what kind of work you are looking for and what kind of experience you already have. The main vacancies are in tourism and hospitality sector and usually they ask for experienced staff. I didn’t have any relevant experience, so it was hard for me to find anything. At the end (after some 2 weeks) I found a work as a housekeeper, but it was only a part time job, so I didn’t save lots of money. But I still had a great time and don’t have any regrets. The second work was in orchard – cherry picking. To get this work I didn’t do anything, well… except one phone call. I was heading to Alexandra to look for a fruit picking work, I called to book a bed at one of the hostels called Marj’s place. The owner – Marj started to ask me out what I’m going to do in Alexandra. I explained that I want to do a little bit of traveling first and then find a fruit picking work. And then she said that by the time I get to Alexandra she will find me work in some of orchards. And that’s how it really was – after traveling around the bottom of South Island, I went to Alexandra and was able to start work the next day. Thanks Marj. So, as you can see there are many scenarios about finding a work in New Zealand.

And there are many ways how to look for a job – job agencies, community information boards (usually in supermarkets), internet, local newspapers, just walk in and ask (must warn that sometimes it can get very depressing to hear “No, thank you. We don’t need anyone at this moment” for the 57th time), but for the best results you have to try them all.

That’s my experience so far. Now I’m in Picton looking for a job again. Nice town, but not so much work opportunities, especially when the season is starting to end. But it’s going to be great, at the end it always is. Somehow it works out. Good luck!

My name is Jan and I would like to tell you my story.
All it started in Czech Republic where I have lived since I was born.
I always wanted to get to know country of the lord of the ring
or also country where lives more sheeps than people.:]

Even more there was an advantage of having summer twice a year.
So this all make my decision to go there.
My flight started in Vienna and I came to Auckland after two days
When one night I spend in luxury hotel arranged by my Flight company.
It was really luxury stage before come back to reality

After that Ive got to the reality
Just like that I have been in foreign country with a really heavy backpack
and no booked accommodation for a night.
What more... there was really expensive bus to the Auckland downtown .
Later I have found out that for this price u could pay half way to Hastings.
So question is why I have a feeling that this is kind of playing with people
who dont have any other chance to get to the city.

So anyway lets move on
After two weeks I bought car cause in the city
was almost no chance to get a job for me and only possibility to stay
with an money is going to do seasonal jobs.
Which was much more easier to find with a car.

Lately I got call that if I have got car
I was going to get a job
And that was how I found my first job.
Thinning apples was my first experience that
earning maney would be that easy as it was addressed in much traveling agencies
After that experience I had a many similiar jobs where most important
was have two fast hands, strong shoulders and been able to do same
kind of moving whole day.

Also I would like to say that sometimes it is hard to work for an constractors
How u should take those people seriously when they are not paying u correctly,
forgeting about hours,names and when u have worked.
Offen also happends that they dont need u for whole week even u are asking them.
And later youll get to know that they came to your backpacker and asked
just for asian people.
Kind of discrimination?

Now I am staying in Hasting and guess what I do picking apples job.
Like a most of people in this time.

So in the end if u are thinking about going to New Zealand.
I would recommended it.
It is beatifull country with a lot to show.
But just be sure that if u want to do backpacking and earn some money
during traveling it would not be easy and sometimes u maybe wouldnt
find a job.

Good luck with finding right job!!

Me and my hubby came over to nz for a year may 2008-2009

we applied for the visa directly through nz immigration website.

we got our ird and bank accounts through visa first. but should of done it when arrived as was soo easy to do and would of saved money.

we arrived in Christchurch and had already arranged to stay in a place called urban rooms we ended up staying there for 3 months.

my hubby worked as a tourist photographer at the Christchurch gondola and Antarctic centre.

we also worked in a local outdoor shop together.

we also did a lot of helpx work in b&bs and hostels which eventually led us to manage a big 100 bed hostel over on the west coast.

we found most of the jobs ourselves and most on the bbh website.

we loved it so much we are back in 3 months time

check out blog at blog.mlcoffeybean.co.uk

liz