I already made the decision to travel for at least a year and I chose my destination:
NEW ZEALAND on the Working Holiday Visa
Now preparing the trip will begin:
- Planning my adventure
- Working Holiday Visa
- Packing and gear list
- Buying a Campervan
- Cellphone and Internet plan
- Bank Account and Taxes number
- Medical and travel insurance
- Driver licence and other official papers
- Budget
1. Planning my adventure
I started making some plans and I began reading a lot of traveller and backpacker blogs to get some ideas and I made the decision to apply for a Working Holiday Visa (look 3.) in New Zealand (NZ). But I didn’t want to travel such a long distance without seeing other countries in between. And then a friend of mine (Raoul) also decided to start the adventure of the WHV in NZ, so we started to plan the route together.
The first thing to do, we have to choose a starting date. So we picked the 29th October to launch the adventure.
We will take off from Luxembourg Airport, “Findel“, via London to begin the experience in Sri Lanka for a few days. Then we will visit Singapore and we will arrive on 6th November in Auckland (NZ).
So we sat down and we searched for a cheap flight for these dates. We found them on edreams.com and expedia.com.
Our flight itinerary:
15h10 Mon, 29 Oct. Luxembourg to London City 15h25 Mon, 29 Oct.
20h40 Mon, 29 Oct. London Heathrow to Colombo (Sri Lanka) 12h40 Tue, 30 Oct.
00h10 Sat, 3 Nov. Colombo to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) 6h30 Sat, 3 Nov.
8h15 Sat, 3 Nov. Kuala Lumpur to Singapore 9h15 Sat, 3 Nov.
20h15 Mon, 5 Nov. Singapore to Kuala Lumpur 21h15 Mon, 5 Nov.
23h55 Mon, 5 Nov Kuala Lumpur to Auckland (NZ) via Gold Coast (Australia) 17h55 Tue, 6 Nov.
So the plan is to explore the whole country, the North and South Island and while travelling around we will work in different places. (Farms, Fruit picking, Bar, Hostel, …) We haven’t chosen any work before leaving, so we can be more spontaneous on our trip across NZ.
2. Working Holiday Visa
I want to spend 1 year in New Zealand and I also want to be able to work in that beautiful country. So the only choice I have is to apply for a Working Holiday Visa (WHV).
New Zealand Working Holiday Visa – NZ$208
You will find all the information needed on this website.
3. Packing and gear list
After I got my WHV and I have booked my flights I start thinking about what to pack to be away for 1 year while not exceeding the airline weight limit which was 22kg.
This two links helped me a lot when you want to see my backpacks and all the useful stuff I packed before leaving home for 1 year go look at my Inventory post.
What clothes to pack to travel NZ?
What to pack for a gap year in NZ? Checklist!
4. Buying a Campervan
I want to explore the whole country, from north to south, so my choice was to buy a self-contained Campervan.
So I began to look all over the internet for information about buying a van in NZ. I found heaps of useful facebook groups on this topic.
I found a good 4 steps checklist for buying a van in NZ:
Step1 Car inspection
Step2 Test drive
Step 3 Car purchase paperwork
Step 4 Car insurance
5. Cellphone and Internet plan
Arriving in NZ, the first thing I will do is to find a good cell phone plan. So I can be connected again with the rest of the world. Because with your plan from home you can just hope for good wifi connections at the airports, in the cities and first accommodation places. In New Zealand there many different phone networks, but the three main cellphone companies in New Zealand are Spark, Vodafone and 2degrees.
6. Bank Account and Taxes number
Getting the WHV will not allow me to work directly on arriving in NZ. I have to open a bank account and I have to apply for my taxes number called IRD (Inland Revenue Department) number.
There are so many banks, but I think that I will open an account at ANZ Bank.
Here are two useful links for this topics.
How to set up a new bank account?
7. Medical and Travel insurance
I have chosen chapkadirect.com medical and travel insurance because for me they offered the best deal.
7 reason to get Medical and Travel insurance
How to pick the best cover for the trip?
8. Driver licence and official papers
I will need the same passport that I entered in my WHV application for the immigration. So I have decided to buy a Campervan, so I have to get an international driving permit to be allowed driving in NZ. I could easily request it at ACL.
The other possibility is to convert your driver licence into a New Zealand Driver Licence. How do to that?
Some more information you will find here.
9. Budget
My budget is around 6000€ for my gap year in NZ and I have some backup money at home. I read in so many blogs that New Zealand is a very expensive country.
Interesting articles about the budget for the adventure WHV:
What is the cost of a working holiday in NZ?
How to transfer money to your NZ bank account?
Currency in NZ: New Zealand Dollar!
I hope all this knowledge can help you to prepare for your trip. There so many other good information websites, but I mostly used backpackerguide.
