part 1 of... idksquaringkarmaJune 5 2010, 16:46:40 UTC
So, what are you in New Zealand for? Work or school or something else? And where do you live here in the U.S. (or did live before you started globetrotting)?
(Lol starting with the bottom, but you also mention it up top :P) New Zealand is amazing! Very gorgeous. I have been here since late September. I flew into Auckland, since that's the largest city (1/3 of the population! Which is like 4 million people) and spent two weeks working my way down to Wellington (which is the capital and on the south end of the North Island), so I've been in Wellington since mid-October-ish. Though there's been some travel since basing myself in Wellington. (Fyi, I picked Wellington because of the really good public transit and its compactness. It's such a cool city even if the weather is a bit crap most of the time :P) My manager (who went to uni in the States.. I guess ex-manager now since I had my last day on Friday since I'm leaving for Oz on Wednesday) and her partner took me up to the Manuwatu region (about 2 hours north of Wellington) over the Christmas weekend since that's where their families are from. I mention my manager went to uni in the States because I think that's part of why we bonded like we did. She felt like she needed to payback all those people who took her in during the holidays when she was at college and far away from home. Aside from that, my dad visited in late January and his (belated) Christmas present to me was a tour of the South Island. So I got to check that island out, too.
As far as what I'm in NZ for, well, there's this thing called a working holiday visa and it allows American citizens between 18 and 30 to come to NZ for a year/12 months. You can only get it once in your life. Here is the page on Immigration NZ. I graduated from college (in northeastern PA) in May 2009 and figured, why not go for it? I had a lot of online friends from NZ and kinda doubted that they would come to me, so I had the money (grandpa left me a sizable inheritance in gold that my parents decided to trade in for cash a couple years ago.. well, they traded in half of it, but it was still enough since it's cheap as to live here... my rent is $130 a week [that's how they do it here] and so that's about US$350 a month) and yeah, just packed up and came.
So I was hoping to find paid work to cover my expenses (at least partially), but it turned out to be harder than I planned. I ended up volunteering most of my time. One place, I started in November and they were cool with me looking for paid work while volunteering for them. Soon after looking though, I kinda decided to stop because Dad visiting in late January would put a cramp on things. Like if I got a contract that would be on for when he was here, we couldn't go to the South Island. (And that would have sucked, for many reasons including the fact that I would have had to spend two weeks on the couch in my first flat, not just the few nights that Dad and I were in Wellington during his visit.)
After Dad left, I started looking again but then I had this great idea of coming home to surprise my mom for her birthday (3rd of July) so I stopped again. I was registered with some temp agencies, but they never had anything for me. I think because while I do have office work experience (and not really any retail; this is probably why I couldn't find something at a shop), it's not a lot. So yeah after I had that idea, I decided to just continue volunteering until early June so I could go to Aussie and SF before Mom's birthday. (I'm telling my mom I'm leaving NZ because who would hire me with less than 3 months on my visa? And that's true. Who would?)
Re: part 1 of... idkmarsupialsJune 11 2010, 00:31:34 UTC
Wow, it sounds like you've thoroughly cover all of NZ! And rent is so cheap! Wow. It's funny, the only two places I've lived/had to look for apartments is Los Angeles and San Francisco, so when anyone anywhere talks about rent where they are, I'm floored. lol. But, yeah, $350 is definitely a great deal by most standards, not just L.A./SF ones!
If I ever came into money, I'd so move somewhere really cheap to make it last. lol.
And I've also always wanted to go to Pennsylvania. I'm from Ohio and that's the farthest East I've been. I really want to visit all of the eastern states.
That Working Holiday Visa thing sounds amazing. Once in a lifetime? That's interesting. I guess they can't have people just living places forever under that provision.
So, are you going back to NZ after Australia and SF for the rest of your three months or are you just cutting the stay short by however long?
What an amazing experience that must be. I can't imagine being that far from home for so long! That farthest I've been alone is SF, and even then, I went home every other weekend and it only last a little over a month. And I've been 2,000 miles away, but only for a few days and I was road-tripping with a friend.
Re: part 1 of... idksquaringkarmaJune 11 2010, 05:34:29 UTC
I didn't make it all the way south, like to Invercargill (I love how that's pronounced for some reason) or the island south of the South Island, which is Stewart Island. Or the West Coast of the South Island, but I had a fair amount of travel of the country, so I'm happy with what I did do :)
And yea, definitely a great deal. I'm guessing rent in NYC is gonna be at least $1000.
Pennsylvania was really good; I have/had family out there. (My other grandpa and his second wife were near Philly when they were still alive [grandpa passed away in July '98, second wife in December '96] and I have some cousins that are about half an hour from where I went to college though they're moving to Kentucky on July 1st, apparently, so not much anymore.)
I guess they can't have people just living places forever under that provision.
Yea, it's mostly a travel/holiday visa, it just allows you to stay in the country longer if you want to and you can take jobs to supplement your travel funds. The US did recently (within the last few years) reach an agreement with Australia for a similar thing, so my plan was actually to do NZ for a year and then Australia for 6-8 months to be back in the US by the end of April 2011. However, since no income was found in NZ (aside from data entry I did for Dad, but that was roughly $180, so not a lot, really), I'm cutting my stay short. I am coming back to NZ after Australia, but it's just about 48 hours so I can see sir_fireboard one last time before I go (I stayed with her and her mum my first weekend in NZ, which was really nice to ease into it, you know?) and also so I can rearrange things. My free baggage allowance for NZ to Australia was 1 piece up to 20kg (44 pounds or so). My free baggage allowance for NZ to US is 2 pieces up to 46kg total (100 pounds).
(Lol starting with the bottom, but you also mention it up top :P) New Zealand is amazing! Very gorgeous. I have been here since late September. I flew into Auckland, since that's the largest city (1/3 of the population! Which is like 4 million people) and spent two weeks working my way down to Wellington (which is the capital and on the south end of the North Island), so I've been in Wellington since mid-October-ish. Though there's been some travel since basing myself in Wellington. (Fyi, I picked Wellington because of the really good public transit and its compactness. It's such a cool city even if the weather is a bit crap most of the time :P) My manager (who went to uni in the States.. I guess ex-manager now since I had my last day on Friday since I'm leaving for Oz on Wednesday) and her partner took me up to the Manuwatu region (about 2 hours north of Wellington) over the Christmas weekend since that's where their families are from. I mention my manager went to uni in the States because I think that's part of why we bonded like we did. She felt like she needed to payback all those people who took her in during the holidays when she was at college and far away from home. Aside from that, my dad visited in late January and his (belated) Christmas present to me was a tour of the South Island. So I got to check that island out, too.
As far as what I'm in NZ for, well, there's this thing called a working holiday visa and it allows American citizens between 18 and 30 to come to NZ for a year/12 months. You can only get it once in your life. Here is the page on Immigration NZ. I graduated from college (in northeastern PA) in May 2009 and figured, why not go for it? I had a lot of online friends from NZ and kinda doubted that they would come to me, so I had the money (grandpa left me a sizable inheritance in gold that my parents decided to trade in for cash a couple years ago.. well, they traded in half of it, but it was still enough since it's cheap as to live here... my rent is $130 a week [that's how they do it here] and so that's about US$350 a month) and yeah, just packed up and came.
So I was hoping to find paid work to cover my expenses (at least partially), but it turned out to be harder than I planned. I ended up volunteering most of my time. One place, I started in November and they were cool with me looking for paid work while volunteering for them. Soon after looking though, I kinda decided to stop because Dad visiting in late January would put a cramp on things. Like if I got a contract that would be on for when he was here, we couldn't go to the South Island. (And that would have sucked, for many reasons including the fact that I would have had to spend two weeks on the couch in my first flat, not just the few nights that Dad and I were in Wellington during his visit.)
After Dad left, I started looking again but then I had this great idea of coming home to surprise my mom for her birthday (3rd of July) so I stopped again. I was registered with some temp agencies, but they never had anything for me. I think because while I do have office work experience (and not really any retail; this is probably why I couldn't find something at a shop), it's not a lot. So yeah after I had that idea, I decided to just continue volunteering until early June so I could go to Aussie and SF before Mom's birthday. (I'm telling my mom I'm leaving NZ because who would hire me with less than 3 months on my visa? And that's true. Who would?)
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If I ever came into money, I'd so move somewhere really cheap to make it last. lol.
And I've also always wanted to go to Pennsylvania. I'm from Ohio and that's the farthest East I've been. I really want to visit all of the eastern states.
That Working Holiday Visa thing sounds amazing. Once in a lifetime? That's interesting. I guess they can't have people just living places forever under that provision.
So, are you going back to NZ after Australia and SF for the rest of your three months or are you just cutting the stay short by however long?
What an amazing experience that must be. I can't imagine being that far from home for so long! That farthest I've been alone is SF, and even then, I went home every other weekend and it only last a little over a month. And I've been 2,000 miles away, but only for a few days and I was road-tripping with a friend.
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And yea, definitely a great deal. I'm guessing rent in NYC is gonna be at least $1000.
Pennsylvania was really good; I have/had family out there. (My other grandpa and his second wife were near Philly when they were still alive [grandpa passed away in July '98, second wife in December '96] and I have some cousins that are about half an hour from where I went to college though they're moving to Kentucky on July 1st, apparently, so not much anymore.)
I guess they can't have people just living places forever under that provision.
Yea, it's mostly a travel/holiday visa, it just allows you to stay in the country longer if you want to and you can take jobs to supplement your travel funds. The US did recently (within the last few years) reach an agreement with Australia for a similar thing, so my plan was actually to do NZ for a year and then Australia for 6-8 months to be back in the US by the end of April 2011. However, since no income was found in NZ (aside from data entry I did for Dad, but that was roughly $180, so not a lot, really), I'm cutting my stay short. I am coming back to NZ after Australia, but it's just about 48 hours so I can see sir_fireboard one last time before I go (I stayed with her and her mum my first weekend in NZ, which was really nice to ease into it, you know?) and also so I can rearrange things. My free baggage allowance for NZ to Australia was 1 piece up to 20kg (44 pounds or so). My free baggage allowance for NZ to US is 2 pieces up to 46kg total (100 pounds).
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