Back in 2009, I was able to scrounge up enough money to travel half
way across the world to Japan and New Zealand. Of which I spent one
week in Tokyo, Japan and a month in Auckland, New Zealand. I was able
to stay with a very good friend of mine, which meant I did not have to
pay for accommodation. I went out to NZ wanting to spend time with my
friend, while seeing what I could of NZ and not losing too much money
in the progress (since I was a student!).

If you want to work in NZ you will need to do the following first
before you are permitted to work for a year. The New Zealand
government offers something called a Working Holiday Scheme which
simply involves you applying without needing to provide any evidence
that you have even received a job offer. I am a UK citizen so it was
not necessary for me to apply for a Visa.

Finding work for me was easy only because the work found me! To my
advantage, I was able to assist my friend who is a bass guitarist in a
band but he now plays for a band in LA called “Tribe”.I ended up
assisting his band with some odd jobs such as some promotional filming
and carrying gear. Nothing major, but that was how I got by! All the
while I was able to watch a live shows, for minimal effort.

It was great being able to spend time catching up with my long time
friend and his family. He was able to show me a good time on the North
Island, with us having some eventful nights in Auckland. I also had a
site recommended to me called http://www.askalo.co.nz/ that I found pretty handy
on figuring out what I should do next.His family also owned their own
boat, so one weekend we were able to get an amazing view of Auckland
from a distance. The view had then become pretty blurry since I got to
hang off the back of the boat on one of those rubber tubes.

My personal highlight of my time in New Zealand though, would have to
be jumping out of a plane from 15,000 ft in the air over lake Taupo.
If you get the chance, you must do Tandem Skydiving! That is something
I will never forget, and the view on the way down was truly
breathtaking.

All in all, in case it is not apparent I really enjoyed my time in New
Zealand and if I had the chance I would most definitely visit again. I
now work full-time, so I hopefully will not have to do any odd jobs ;)

Email: Gavin.Lammin@locanto.co.uk

Twitter: @Gav_at_Locanto