John MacKay - Working Holiday New Zealand

Working Holiday New Zealand

John Mackay

For years, Australia hasbeen the destination of choice for working holiday makers. NewZealand is often viewed as a side trip(and seen at lightning speed on a South to North Island tour). Wella lot of people are missing out! From the ski fields to wineries tomovie sets, theres a world of opportunities for workingtravel.

New Zealand is compactenough to make the perfect base for an extended trip broken up withroad trips on your days off. Its also got a ridiculously diverserange of activities and attractions for such a small country, notto mention the fact that its a mere few hours flight from theparadise islands of Fiji and French Polynesia.

Convinced yet? Living costs arelow, the coffee is good, and depending on where you base yourself,the winters are probably milder than they are back home.

I came to New Zealand on aworking holiday visa, and soon feel in love with what was to becomemy new permanent home. Frankly, I could gush about the place forhundreds of pages, but who on earth would want to read that?

Instead, Ive spared the gushingto bring you all the essential information that I wish someone hadgiven me when I first arrived. From pre-arrival and visas; to jobsand accommodation; to visa options if you want to stay longer its all here. I hope you enjoy NZ as much as I do!

New Zealand is a developedcountry, where English is the first language. Several people comehere each year from Northern Europe and North America on workingholiday visa. Bear this in mind if youre thinking about signing upfor a package where you pay someone to set up your bank account,tax number etc. Sure, these things take a while to set up, but youcan sort them out when you arrive here (the relevant sections inthis guide list what youll need and where youll have togo).

With all of this in mind,the only things you really need to worry about before arriving aremaking sure your passport and visa are in order, booking yourflight, making sure you have enough cash to get set up, andpacking.

In terms of arranging your visa,this can be done quickly and painlessly at the link below, and inmost cases it doesnt take long for New Zealand Immigration toconfirm that your visa has been granted.

Duration and agerestrictions vary by your country of citizenship. For mostcountries, you can get a twelve month working visa, which you canapply for when youre between the ages of 18 and 30 (ie. Beforeyour 31 st birthday). Youll have a year to actually get to NewZealand. Visas are often approved quite quickly, so be sure not toapply too early. If your application is approved, you wont be ableto apply for another working holiday visa for NZ (even if you neveruse your first one).

For some countries, there is aquota limiting the number of visas that will be supplied tocitizens of that country in a given year. These can be exhaustedrapidly.

The table below lists the agelimit and visa duration for a range of countries, and also includesan indication of whether theres a quota in place for applicationsfrom that country.

You can apply online here:

http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migrant/stream/work/workingholiday/

by selecting your country ofcitizenship in the list at the bottom of the page.

How much?

NZ$140 (or local equivalent) asat the time of writing.

Do I need toget a medical and chestx-ray?

This will depend on where youre applying and your visaduration:

Even if youre notrequired to complete a medical, you may need to have an x-raycertificate completed if youve spent more than a total of threemonths of the last five years in a country or countries not on NZImmigrations list of low TB incidence countries. This can be foundhere:

http://www.immigration.govt.nz/NR/rdonlyres/DD2D2D27-DD49-4A62-96CC-3A1F32223C8E/0/INZ1121.pdf

This list excludes most SouthAmerican and Asia countries. If youre completing your applicationonline, youll be notified if you need to complete this.

For most countries,Immigration NZ requires that you have funds ofNZ$4 ,200 to cover your living costs, aswell as enough cash to fund your return ticket home. In practice,immigration officials rarely ask for proof of this at the airport(but do you want to test that?!).

NZ$4,200 is unlikely to covereven the most frugal for a year, but if youre planning to startworking reasonably soon, then you should get by on a couple ofthousand dollars.

There are often good deals onflights from San Francisco and LA, given that both are relativelycloser to New Zealand than Western Europe or the East Coast of theUS. Air New Zealand does offer direct flights to Vancouver, butthese dont come cheap.

Aside from your own countrys cheap flightswebsites, www.grabaseat.co.nz and www.webjet.co.nz aretwo of New Zealands bargain flight websites. Grabaseat is owned byAir Zealand, and offers heavy discounts on Air NZ flights withsurplus availability. Dates are usually last minute, but if you canhandle that, the prices are amazing.

From Europe, its a case ofchecking as many websites as you can, and crossing your fingers. Doyourself a favour and dont decide to arrive just before or afterChristmas, when flights are at a premium!

www.momondo.com and www.skyscanner.net letyou search a range of different sites at once, and easily compareflight costs across different dates.

If youre already travelling,cheap flights are easily found from Asia. If youre in SouthAmerica, direct flights are available from Santiago, Chile (orconnecting flights via Sydney).

Bad news if youre coming fromCentral America youre looking at a lengthy connection via theUS.

If youre in Australia, on theother hand, then youre spoilt for choice. Book ahead for the saleprices, or you may strike it lucky at the last minute ongrabaseat.

Should I book a round-the-worldticket?

This depends on how longyoure going to stay, and where you want to go on the waythere/back. If youre sure about how long you want to spendhere and you know youll be heading homebefore your ticket expires, check out the prices for individualflight legs before you shell out for a RTW ticket: theyre notalways that much cheaper, so you might be sacrificing flexibilityfor nothing.

If home is a long wayaway, it makes sense to sign up for atleast one frequent flyer account. While its never a good idea tobook flights based on whether youll earn points, these are anadded bonus if the cheapest flight is one for which you could earnpoints.

How many points? It alldepends on the distance. But take London-Wellington as an example.The distance is approximately 11,500 miles, and could work out asbeing significantly more depending on connections. With someprogrammes, this one-way flight alone can earn you enough points to book a free domestic returnflight!

Everything is expensive in NewZealand, and unless youre from Timbuctoo theres going to be a lotless choice than youll find at home. At a stretch, you can findwork basics in the Warehouse, a nationwide chain something likeKmart, but its best to bring everything you need.

If you cant bring it, then shoponline even with postage youll probably end up paying less.