UPDATE – KIWILAND

SO, after quite some time I return to the keyboard, refreshed. To be clear, I lost my appetite for writing as we CRAMMED a week in Phnom Penh and Singapore – which then exploded into starting a life in New Zealand in the first week of December; so to put it mildly, we have a lot to catch up on… apologies old sport…

NZ began with the upmost chaos as we landed and decided without much forethought that Christchurch would be our new home to save and live in until it was time to hit the road again. Furthermore, Christmas/NYE was approaching and all I could think about was getting a job/flat/friends/sense of stability before the holidays really kicked off. It felt pretty intense for the first week, which was only advanced by Fraser arranging his job via email prior to our arrival and then working his first shift a mere 4 HOURS after we bloody landed. Thus, motivation to turn my feelings into words was low because all it would have been was:

what have I done.

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BUT against the odds my CV skills/emailing around saved me. We crash landed into a stunning house full of friendly, boozy Brits and I got job at a popular local restaurant ~ the next week. Despite all my worries it was surprisingly easy to do so IF you have reservations about a Working Holiday Visa (WHV) and setting yourself up, I can tell you that it is very very possible and will not cost huge amounts of $$, it just may be a little stressy when/if you come from a background of “don’t leave a job/flat unless you have another to go to.” LOL

SO with us both working and in a new house full of people the holidays came around rapidly. On Christmas Eve we hit the outside bar; Smash Palace, for a dance where I convinced one of the staff to let me hold her white fluffy cloud of a dog with a #sobstory. Following on from that 4 of us went for a Christmas day dip at New Brighton Beach and returned to an absolute feast in the garden with relative heat – not quite the Christmas on the beach I’d hope for but how I could complain? Fourteen-ish people, multiple vegetarian options, beers outside and I wasn’t freezing my ass off for once. Undoubtedly the the busiest Christmas I’ve ever had – (only child/divorced fam problems) but it is up there with some of the best, minus the beer bong I spat down my front and the sheer quantity of ballsack on show…

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The novelty of the celebrations however, fell away around a heavy working load. While most of the flat managed seasonal leave I worked early shifts including xmas eve/boxing day/nye/ny day etc. etc. Granted, it was time and a half and the place was friendly/well-paid, but I would have given a lot to go to Rhythm & Alps with the majority of my flat for the New Year – c’est la vie. Moreover, where I at least had all my evenings free to indulge in socialising & Speights (NZ’s Tennent’s) Fraz worked late shifts which meant we didn’t even see each other until 1am on of January 1st – c’est la vie x 2. Those of us that stayed behind got drunk and went to the local fireworks at Hagley Park – so a tame start to 2020, but by this point I didn’t care hugely because the reality of my future travel began to set in. As I spoke to people at work, home (NZ home) and began to hear more about NZ outside of the city I began to get hyped and acknowledge that working hard and living frugal was once again going to pay off. Recommendations, stories and pictures were beginning to pour in and I remembered the reason I came here, for a drop of stability – which I now had – but also for the eventual pursuit of travel, and it was coming.

So the advice: Whilst it is all a bit daunting this is very doable. A Working Holiday Visa for NZ cost about £150 and a seasonal job was easy enough to get simply from emailing around. Just be bold and put in the effort and it will pay off. As for housing we found a super good place for £66 a week p/p (bills included) (cats included) on roomgo.co.nz – and truthfully the city of Christchurch has been accommodating and fun – minus a harassment incident in the park that I’ll blog about later.

Final heads up, unless your accent is discernibly Scottish (mine is not) everyone here will think you’re Irish, kiwis suck at pegging accents!