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Australia Working Holiday for Malaysian?

szehau — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 15:45:50 +0000

Heard from my friend saying that Australia's working holiday scheme is now opened to Malaysian. It is a good news to Malaysian who wish to go to travel and work in Australia. Of course, travel must be your highest priority to join scheme. The scheme is available to Malaysian on 1st February 2009.

Some friends asked me whether I will join this scheme. I think my answer will be "NO". I have been in New Zealand for 9 months and I think it is enough for me and I have been rest and relax for 9 months. It's time for me to plan my future and career and it's time to move forward again.

Program 'Work and Holiday Visa' di antara Malaysia dan Australia

The above link is the Malaysia official immigration web site about the Working Holiday in Australia. The title and the content seem to be a bit confuse to me. It says "Work and Holiday Visa in between Malaysia and Australia". In that web page, it also mentions the eligibility to apply for Malaysia and Australian; and steps to apply for Malaysian and Australian. Is that means Malaysia is opening a working holiday opportunity to Australian too?

At the end of the page in the Malaysia official immigration web site about the Working Holiday in Australia, it says

Adalah dicadangkan supaya pihak Jabatan Imigresen Malaysia menetapkan kadar bayaran yang sewajarnya bagi program ini. Kadar bayaran yang dikenakan kepada rakyat New Zealand bagi menyertai 'Working Holiday Program' Malaysia/ New Zealand ialah sebanyak Rm90.00 setahun

What is the relation to "rakyat New Zealand" (New Zealanders) in this "Work and Holiday Visa in between Malaysia and Australia". The content in this page seems to be inconsistance. If you are interested in this scheme, make sure you call to Malaysia immigration to check the terms and conditions; and also check with Autralia's immigration websites before you actually apply.

About Working Holiday at New Zealand

szehau — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 16:49:59 +0000

Recently I received a few requests from my blog readers asking about Working Holiday at New Zealand.

So I think I should write a post about all the useful stuff when one arrive in New Zealand for the working holiday scheme.

From Immigration New Zealand website, to be eligible:

have a Malaysian passport that‘s valid for at least three months after your planned departure from New Zealand
be at least 18 and not more than 30 years old
not bring children with you
hold a return ticket or sufficient funds to purchase such a ticket [I bougth an outward ticket to Australia but at the end didn't use it because I extended my visa for another 3 months. So if you plan to stay longer (e.g. extend your visa), you can bring more money to show that you have money to buy a return ticket]
have a minimum of NZ$2,250 available funds to meet your living costs while you’re here [I brought around NZ$2300 cash]
meet our health and character requirements
be coming to New Zealand to holiday, with work being a secondary intention for your visit
not have been approved a visa or permit under a Working Holiday Scheme before.

Although the immigration officer didn't ask me to show the return ticket and the minimum fund when I arrived New Zealand but I think it is better to prepare what they want.

As for the plan and bank statement to be submitted to the immigration, I didn't submit any plan and bank statement because it is not necessary at that time. For the plan, personally I think you can tell them:

where you will stay [budget hostel] when you reach NZ and what you will do next [find a job or travel first?]
how much you will spend your time for work [should always less than 50%] and travel
what kind of job you will be looking for [seasonal job]
what kind of accomodation you will find in NZ when you are travelling[budget hostel] and working [flatemate/prepared by agent]
how you will travel around [bus or car pool with friends or buy a second car]
what is your travel plan [e.g. 3 months in north island, 3 months in south island and the places/activities you will/must go/do]

For budget accomodation, you can always look for BBH (budget backpacker hostels) or YHA (youth hostel association). You can get a free hostel list from both BBH and YHA for free. Register yourself with both BBH (NZ$45) and YHA (NZ$60) and get some discount for the stay and also discount on other things like transport, activities, equipment and entertainment. Before you reach NZ, remember to book a bed first because hostels in big city can easily get fully booked. Below are the website for BBH and YHA:

For jobs, you can find it from websites. You can access to internet easily from most of the backpacker hostel for free or small fee. You can also look at the hostel's notice board and ask the host or the receptionist at the hostel to help you find a job. They are really helpful:

For travelling around NZ, you can take bus or car pool with friends or buy a second car. Second car in NZ is pretty cheap (new car is cheap too but I don't think it is necessary to buy a new car here). For NZ$1500 you can get a pretty good second hand car. You can find a second hand car local car market, backpacker hostels' notice board or website (http://www.trademe.co.nz/). To travel with bus, you can look for naked bus or intercity. There are other bus service too but these two offer the cheapest rate for most of the time. You can get NZ$1 bus fare with nakebus if you book in advanced.

Hope these information are useful to you.

Cheers!

[Updates: March 11, 2009]

You may interested how much you will earn while you are in New Zealand. My friend who traveled together with to New Zealand has recorded how much he has earned in each job and you may interested to know about it:

http://www.penguin-inn.com/blog/2009/02/27/nz_jobs_salary/

Malaysia – I’m back!

szehau — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 10:00:40 +0000

Finally I'm back!

I have just finished my 9 months Working Holiday at New Zealand and I'm now back to Malaysia. It was a great experience. I saw new things, met new friends, young and old, leanrt to be more independent and now came back with refreshing mind.

I won't tell you the whole story here because it will take days or maybe weeks to write it down, ha ha. But my photo will tell you everything. You can browse my photo gallery at my flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/szehau/collections/72157604717281912/. Beware!, there were around 10,000 of photos in my Working Holiday album!

To my friends who I met in New Zealand (no matter you are still in New Zealand or have already back to your own country), I would like to thank you being apart of my working holiday journey and I had learnt a lot of things and got inspiration from you guys. You guys are AWESOME! I hope we will have chance to meet again in future.

Cheers!

Working Holiday … Ending

szehau — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 01:40:53 +0000

My working holiday is coming to the end. The "working" part of working holiday is officially ended yesterday and now left "holiday". Hehe =) I will visit a few more places for sightseeing before go back to Malaysia.

Ok, here this is the plan:

I'm will be staying in Ashburton a few days until 17th December, 2008.

On 18th December, 2008, I will be going to Lake Tekapo again and will stay there for one night.

On 19th December, 2008, I will be leaving Lake Tekapo heading to Queenstown for a few days until 22 December, 2008.

On 21th December, 2008, I will be going for a Milford day tour to Milford Sound and some other interesting places near Milford Sound. At the end of the day, I will be returned to Queenstown.

On 23rd December, 2008, I will be in Christchurch in the evening and will be staying in Christchurch for Christmas and New Year until I need to take my flight to Australia on 6th of January.

On 1st January, 2009, I will be heading to Kaikuora for Whale watching and will be returned to Christchurch.

Hopefully everything is on plan and the trips doesn't spend me to much money! =)

Stay at Christchurch – City Court Motel

szehau — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 09:01:31 +0000

We are now staying in Christchurch while waiting for our working holiday maker visa extension to be approved.

We are staying in a pretty cheap motel called City Court Motel at the central of Christchurch city. It costs NZD20 per night for backpackers. If you are a backpacker, you can try stay to here, a very strategic place, near to Catheral Square, shops, casino and supermarkets.

Since we will be staying here until we get out visa extension approval, we do get some free nights. Stay 6 nights and the 7th night is free. We also get free wireless Internet access and free laundry. The motel rooms are clean and nice.

The host, Pinkey, is very nice to us. She helps a lot during our visa extension. She also helps other backpackers and working holidaymakers to find their jobs and also share knowledge about local information.

If you want to stay here too, you can contact Pinkey at 0210432990 or pay a visit to the motel at 850 Colombo St, (Cnr Salisbury St), Christchurch.

Cheers.

Time to go home?

szehau — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 03:58:13 +0000

After the lily bulbs processing season has finished, we stopped working and decided to go to Christchurch to extend our working holiday work permit.

At Christchurch, we had requested the inland revenue department (IRD) to print out the tax statement and according the officer it will takes 5 to 10 working days. We then planned to stay in Christchurch and wait for the IRD tax statement.

We also met our friends from Taiwan and Hong Kong whose we had worked together in Tauranga and Rakaia. We (4 of us, Han Shyong, Wee Cheng, Lee Fong and me), Sinny, Joan, Yana and Scott had a good time in Christchurch. We went Christchurch to have our dinner, went up hill to "blow blow win" and had another dinner at Nando's.

We also went to ski at Porters Ski Area with our friends from Rakaia. It was my first time at ski field. It is not hard to learn but it just too difficult for me to control the ski when I'm in very high speed. It was fun and great experience.

The Botanic garden in Christchurch is a nice place to go especially if like to photography. The flowers and plants here are beautiful and the garden is most beautiful during spring. I went to the garden and now was the time near to spring, the flowers are so nice and I had taken a lot of photos.

After a few days of waiting the IRD tax statement, we decided to not wait for the IRD tax statements and asked ST to help us to submit the working holiday extension form after a few days. We decided to continue our journey to visit the remaining places in South island of New Zealand. We traveled together with Joan and Yana for a few places.

The first place we went was Akaroa. Akaroa has a BBH with the highest rating (98%) among the other BBH. Very unluckily, there was no vacancy in the BBH. So we decided to move to the next destination, Methven.

We stayed overnight at Methven and moved to Lake Tekapo. We had our yummy Japanese style lunch at Lake Tekapo. After we had taken a few photos, we moved on to Mount Cook. We had our delicious dinner at Mount Cook YHA. Yana and Joan cooked us the Taiwan style spicy steamboats. It was so nice and SPICY. I also had taken a few night shots at the surrounding of Mount Cook.

At day time, we went to a few tracks at Mount Cook. We saw lakes, glaciers and stunning views of mountains.

After 2 days of stays in Mount Cook, we moved to our next destination, Lake Wanaka. Joan and Yana continued their journey to Timaru, Oamaru and so on... Lake Wanaka is one the most beautiful lake with city that I have ever seen. We spent a lot of time and had having fun at the Puzzling world and it was my first time take gun shots at "Have a shot" next to the Puzzling world.

Han Shyong, Lee Fong and me also took a Skydive in Lake Wanaka. It was a great experience and it was not fear at all. At the sky, you can see the stunning scenic around the Lake Wanaka (Snow mountains, lakes, rivers, farms...).

At Lake Wanaka, we also met our cute friends from Rakaia, Yumi and Sonia. They made muffins for us. Although the muffins were a bit over baked but still very nice to eat.

After the Skydive, we moved on to Queenstown. One the town that I like, busy at day time and happening at the night time. We stayed at Queenstown's Lake front YHA. We got a free beer (Friday only) at "The world bar" for staying in YHA.

We also visited a small town called Glenorchy before we moved on from Queenstown to Te Anau (A place that I most awaited).

At Te Anau, we met Sonia. Me, Han Shyong, Wee Cheng and Sonia, went to the Doubtful sound overnight cruise. Although it was raining during the tour, the scenic still very nice and amazing. I liked the kayak activity very much. The dinner buffet and breakfast on the cruise were great too.

After Te Anau, our next destination was the end (nearly) of the world, the Bluff. Bluff is the south-est place of South Island, New Zealand and it is the oldest European settled town in New Zealand We stayed in Invercargill and the next day went to Bluff to take photos.

We then moved on to Catlins. A place where we went for waterfall, waterfall and waterfalls.

At Nugget Point (northern end of he Catlins coast), we saw yellow-eyed penguin, the world's rarest penguin.

At Dunedin, we went to the Tunnel beach. Tunnel beach is a beach where you can only access thru a tunnel.

We also visited and walked the world steepest street in Dunedin, Baldwin Street.

We then moved on to Oamaru to see blue penguin. You need pay to watch the penguins at the Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony central but we didn't. We just wait at the roadside of the central at around 9pm to 10pm. We saw around 10 penguins walking across the road and railways. There are so cute.

After Oamaru, we moved back to Christchurch to wait for our Working Holiday Visa extension. According to the immigration officer, we will need to wait for two weeks to know the result. We have already waited for one week. Are we going to stay here or going back home Malaysia? We still don't know.

Note: More photos at my Flickr photos collections (not up-to-date because I had taken too much photos and need time to upload!).

Working at Rakaia

szehau — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 09:37:50 +0000

Last few weeks we moved out from Bleinhem and travel to several places at West Coast of New Zealand's south island.

Our first destination was Westport. On the way to Westport, we stopped at Nelson Lake and Muncheison Falls. The scenic on the way to Westport is really nice and we also saw rainbow above the Mucheison. We stayed at Westport's BBH and continue our journey the next day.

We then moved to Franz Josef. On the way to Franz Josef, we stopped at Punakaiki. At Punakaiki we saw Pancake Rocks and Blowholes. The Pancake Rocks was formed by layered of rocks and the Blowholes was formed by the huge wave from the sea over the rocks.

We stayed at a BBH at Franz Josef and the next day we went to Fox Glacier to hike the glacier (so called ice mountain?). We need to where crampon to walk on the glacier and it is not slippery and is not cold as expected. Glacier is formed by a compression of layer of snow from the top of the hill.

We also went to Lake Matheson. At the lake, you can see the lake is like a mirror. You can see the scenic opposite is reflected on the lake. It was amazing!

After the Fox Glacier tour, we moved to Hokitika and stayed one night. We the continue out journey to Hanmer Springs. At Hanmer Springs, we visited to the spa and it was so cool and amazing! It is an open air spa. It was snowing the time we were in the spa, cool! The surrounding scenic is very nice too. Something that don't like much is that it is too packed, too many people. However we still very enjoy there.

After Hanmer Springs, we headed to Christchurch to take the Tranz Alphine coach. The coach is from Christchurch to Greymouth. It is a must if come to New Zealand. You will have a stunning views on the train!

At Christchurch, we also went to a small town call Lyttelton to have our lunch. We ordered two burgers. The burger was as large as a plate and it is so yummy too!

We then moved to Lake Tekapo to meet a few friends at there. They works as cleaner at the hotel near by. Lake Tekapo is a very small town and there is only a few shops and restaurant there. Luckily one of our friends's boss is very kind, he offered a very cheap and very nice accommodation to us. We stayed there for 3 nights. We went to ice skating and hike mount John. We also made snowman at there! It was really fun there.

Finally we have got a job offer at Rakaia and we have to move to Rakaia to start working the next two days. We unable to find any accommodation. At the end we now staying at holiday park which cost us NZD110 per week per person. One house (a really small cabin with 2 beds only) for two person, no toilet and kitchen. Kitchen and toilet are shared at the outside. It is so cold to walk to kitchen or toilet at the night and morning. It is much more difficult to take a bath as the toilet does not have any warming device. So pity of us...

Working Holiday … Ending

Backed to Bleinhem and need to move out again

szehau — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 01:29:15 +0000

Just back to the place where we currently, permanently stay, Bleinheim last few days. It was super boring this few days because we feel so lazy and didn't go to work.

Yesterday we have returned all the pruning to our contractor because we have decided to move to other place and find job again. Our plan now first is to go for travel around 10 days then stop at Christchurch to find job or travel further.

We planned to travel to Nelson lake, Westport, Greymouth, Franz Josef, Hanmer Spring and Christchurch. At Christchurch, we may take the TranzAlphine train day return to Greymouth.

We haven't planned for more further as we still unsure whether we able to find a job at Christchurch or maybe cities near by.

Holiday at Motureka, Kaiteriteri

szehau — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:03:23 +0000

We went to Abel Tasman - New Zealand's smallest national park for a day trip. The trip started from Kaiteriteri. It was shower at the morning and luckily it just for a while. The whole trip was refreshing.. fresh air, fresh water!

Holiday at Motueka

Holiday at Motueka

szehau — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 11:19:43 +0000

Before we go to Motueka, we went back to the Waikoropupu Spring to hope to get clear shots of the spring. Unluckily, the result was same as yesterday.

Waikoropupu Springs

After that we went to The Grove near Clifton, a place with a lot of big rocks. Not very interesting but not bad too.

The Grove

After we had reached Motueka, we checked in a hostel called "Laughing Kiwi hostel". It is a very nice hostel. We stayed in a double and a twin bed room and it only costs NZD22 per person. I like the design of the hall and kitchen, it is large and comfortable.

Laughing Kiwi hostel

At evening, we went to a beach near by the city called "Raumanuka - Motueka Sandspit". It atmosphere was cold and the view was nice. Took a few great shots there.

Motueka Sandspit

After came back from Motueka Sandspit, we decided to stay another night at this Laughing Kiwi hostel because we can leave our gears here and tomorrow we can go to the Abel Tasman Tour.

For dinner, we cooked Chinese style's mushroom soup, sardine, salmon fish and rice.

Holiday at Motureka, Kaiteriteri

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