Share your kiwi working experience or even just your holiday tips tricks and what ever you want to say about your time in New Zealand....these stories really benefit the users our this site and as a bonus SeasonalJobs.co.nz will pay for it if it gets published!
So what are you waiting for?!
I thought it sounded interesting
I first heard of going to New Zealand for work, a couple of months before my graduation (at a sort of a fair, of what to do after graduation). I thought it sounded interesting, so me and my boyfriend decided to go to New Zealand for a year working after our graduation in Sweden. First we came to Auckland and spent a couple of days there. Since we are a part of I.E.P., they got us the working holiday visa and they also helped us with getting an IRD number.
When we got tired of Auckland we decided to start traveling for a while first, until the fruit picking season would begin. With Stray, we traveled down south and ended up in Wanaka. We loved it, and chose trying to find work here. We heard that the vineyard work was soon to start, so while waiting for that we worked for accommodation at a place we found through WWOOF. We got the advice of going to the Job Agency, and so we did. After a couple of minutes talking, we got a job at a vineyard the following day. At the vineyard we got to peel of the sprouts from the steam for six hours and then doing another thing for two hours. Unfortunately, the job was only for that day. Apparently the period of vineyard work was over, even though we had heard that it was just about to start.
We applied for a bunch of jobs, but didn’t really get that much response. We tried walking in to stores and coffee shops and such, just handing out our resumes. Everyone just said that “it’s quite right now, wait till December”. So we waited. Now we are staying at x-base, working three hours a day for a ten bed dorm. It’s all right, just doing simple cleaning. We tried doing the same thing in Auckland at Base, but that was just horrible. Four hours for a 25 dollar dorm. Four hectic hours of complaining bosses. Here it is more relaxed and our bosses are great.
We also both managed to get a job at New World. Just unpacking stuff, for 13 dollars an hour. At first, our schedule said ten hours a day, five days a week. We tried that, combined with the three hours at X-Base, for just one day. Then realized that 13 hours a day was way too much. Since we wanted to stay at X-Base, as well as working at New World, they were nice enough to cut our work days down to 8 hours.
I am glad to have found these jobs. Everyone at both working places are really nice and like it. Though it’s a bit hard sometimes working 11 hours most days, it’s still worth it, saving up some money so that we can do some more traveling without money issues.
Submitted by: Clara Markus Date submitted: 7/12/2010 7:56:41 PM
