Travel in April + WHV

I've been approved for a WHV in New Zealand, and I will be arriving in Auckland on April 3rd. This is the first time I've done a WHV for any country, so I'm a mixture of nervous and excited right now. I still have a lot of things to plan, but I should have that all wrapped up by the end of this month.

I'll be leaving from the Philadelphia area in the United States, stopping in California then Hawaii to visit family, then leaving for Auckland on the 1st of April from Honolulu. I plan on staying for the full year that the WHV allows. I have a couple of leads for employment, and have been sending my resume to local recruiters, as well as several of the hostels run by the YHA. I plan on making the rounds in person once I arrive to see about employment.

I will either work when I arrive, or start to travel depending on my luck in getting a job.

Can anyone offer advice or a checklist of things that someone on a WHV should do as soon as they enter the country? There are a lot of good forum posts out there, but I like to get as many opinions as possible. Any advice from someone who has done a WHV in New Zealand would be appreciated.

Right now I'm headed over by myself, but I'm looking for people interested in traveling together for any period of time. I'm a 26 year old white American male, looking to do a fair amount of backpacking, outdoors activities, and anything that involves getting out and seeing as much as New Zealand has to offer. My goals are to do this as reasonably cheap as I can, and hit up the major parks of the islands.