About Working Holiday at New Zealand

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:

• http://www.yha.co.nz/
• http://www.bbh.co.nz/

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:

• http://www.seasonaljobs.co.nz/
• http://www.backpackerboard.co.nz/
• http://www.bbh.co.nz/travellers/billboard_home.asp

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.

• http://www.nakedbus.co.nz/
• http://www.intercity.co.nz/

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/