Our New Zealand plan

Ok guys, hoped that I could use your experiences and opinions on our NZ plan:

May 31st land in Auckland (after 5 months in Asia)
Me and my girlfriend both have working visas and we hoped to do a snow season.

Firstly, I have done bits of research and we want to head straight to the south. Ideally we would like to be in Wanaka - but what are the chances of sorting out work when we get there? Does anyone have any recommendations of how/where to sort work out before hand - without having to have an interview as early as March? We both have degrees, have done all kind of jobs, my girlfriend has bar work experience, but I dont (would it be necessary? Im sure I would pick it up real quick...) We would like to ideally have the days free to snowboard, so an evening job, or a morning job would be ideal. What are peoples thoughts on this? Any tips? Is accommodation easy enough available? Obviously job opportunities will dictate where we settle, so Queenstown is still an option...

If we were to get a season lift pass, which one/resort would people recommend?

We will also need to get our snowboard gear sent over to us... does anyone have any experience in sending large items through the post in such a way and know a rough cost, and could recommend any companies?

We also would like to buy a van. One that we could live out of during the summer. Any tips on doing this??

A lot to ask, but any info would be of great help, thanks!!

J & L

As this is country specific, it's probably best posted on the Australia/NZ branch.

I would send emails directly to bars/restaurants/rental shops etc about a month before you arrive, and follow up with emails/phone calls/visits when you arrive. You can also try the ski fields (but try earlier) as they have jobs like lift operators. It is a day job, but you will have days off.

It can be hard to get casual work from overseas, as a large number of people say they are coming and never show up. So being on the ground is a big help.

Season pass will depend on where you end up staying. Treble Cone and Cardrona are closest to Wanaka. And there are also combination ones available.

Try www.trademe.co.nz for vans. If you plan to freedom camp with the van make sure you get a portable toilet as the councils are cracking down on this.

Hi UKapple

I'm an Aussie and haven't done much travelling but have done A LOT of research on Working Holidays in Canada so perhaps you could apply this to NZ?

I don't own skis or a snowboard so I figured I'd buy some over there (I believe that employees of ski resorts get pretty good discounts at the retail stores). I thought that if I wanted to keep my skis then I'd send my skis home to Aus ahead of me while I was still travelling a bit - the quote I got was about $1000 for two sets of skis (I used the dimensions from a ski case that stores two sets just as an example). Anyway, you might like to shop around and look up how much you'd expect to pay - some of the websites I looked at were able to give an online quote once you entered the details of what you were transporting (sorry, I don't remember the names of the websites).

A lot of the resorts in Canada cater for workers from overseas so you might find a few resorts in NZ that are the same. Have you looked up any programs that you can pay for to have an interview at home months before the season starts? In Aus, there are companies like IEP so perhaps there are similar programs that you can go through in the UK for NZ jobs. That way you can tee up work at home before you leave...the only problem is that the programs I have seen are about $700 so I guess you'd have to weigh up your options.

Again, I don't know specifically about NZ for the campervan query but have you tried reading some travel blogs to get tips from travellers? I found TravelPod good (and interesting)

Good luck - it sounds like a lot of fun. I can't wait to finish uni so I can travel as well!

Thanks very much kristen, much appreciated.

Might catch you in Canada as that is our stop after NZ!

Unfortunately not as I won't be embarking on my journey for quite a while as I still have a little while to go at uni. At the moment I am just dreaming and occasionaly indulge in a bit of 'research' to give myself a break from study.
I have managed to pick an assignment question that I can relate to travel so I have an excuse to indulge in a bit more research!
All the best!