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If you are aged between 18 and 30 years old, you should think about getting yourself over the picturesque island of New Zealand for a Working Holiday of up to 23 months! The Kiwi Essentials programme gets you off to a flying start – you’ll have a suitable job found for you, have a bit of a hand settling in and its also a great way to make a load of new friends before you embark on your kiwi working life.
The Kiwi Essentials programmes sorts you out with the essentials for your Kiwi Experience! When you arrive into Auckland, your bus transport will be waiting to whisk you off to your city centre hostel. The hostel is in a great location, you’ll get to grips with the city as well as the Kiwi way of life in no time. Whilst you are enjoying Auckland, you’ll get a comprehensive orientation with the local Kiwi coordinator and we’ll help you get yourself a job!
Airport Transfer
We’ll send you a voucher to jump on a bus at Auckland airport that will take you directly into the city centre and your hostel – from there it’ll be super quick and easy to check in!
Accommodation
Your first seven nights in NZ will be spent right in the centre of Auckland. This great location puts all of the city’s great amenities within easy reach – bars, restaurants, shops, cinemas, galleries, theatres, post offices and the Auckland Sky Tower.
The Auckland hostel is also a great place to meet other travellers, who you can explore the city with and the friendly hostel staff will be able to help you sort out work, play or travelling requirements. After those seven nights are up, you can either extend your stay at the hostel or look into getting a house share with other travellers that you’ve met. The staff can also help you with this.
Services and Facilities Include:
- A travel centre
- A job search centre
- Internet café
- A chill out area
- Two TV lounges with Sky
- Games areas
- Modern laundry facilities
- Kitchen/ dining area
- 24 hour reception
- Secure access
- Luggage storage area
- Two bars!
Orientation
You will have your arrival orientation on the first business day after you touched down in Auckland. You’ll get loads of useful information from the session including details on jobs, tax, travelling NZ and Auckland itself. You can get advice about living arrangements after your seven days at the hostel are up and get bar and club recommendations. There will also be plenty of opportunities to ask any questions you have.
Your orientation is also a great time to introduce yourself to all the friendly staff and the other people staying at the hostel, you like you, are finding their feet on Kiwi soil.
The Job Service
This programme includes a 12-month job finding service. We have a team that are specialists at finding jobs for NZ working holidaymakers. You could get a job in the fields of labour and construction, temping, bar/café work, fruit picking (seasonal), travel & tourism, trade positions, health sectors work, clerical/office admin work, accountancy and many more. There are jobs all over the country to choose from, you needn’t be restricted to one area!
Another part of the service is that you will receive assistance with sorting out important stuff like sorting out a bank account, getting a tax number, preparing a CV and arranging interviews.
New Zealand Job Search will have, on average, between 60 and 120 jobs for you to choose from (though this does depend on the season). There is work available in the skilled and unskilled fields at the moment because NZ is experiencing a shortage of skills in all areas, from IT to healthcare and forestry to accounting.
Job Offer Guarantee
One of the major benefits of the programme is that you are guaranteed a job offer, so you can be safe in the knowledge that you’ll have a job and therefore a Kiwi income! At the moment the Auckland team are pairing people and jobs really quickly, in fact it is only taking a couple of days! So, if you can be flexible, you’ll have more job options and therefore, a job even quicker!
Types of Jobs
Labouring and Construction Work of this nature tends to be weather dependent, so there are generally more jobs in the summer than the winter. Work can mostly be found within the cities, but if it is outside of the city, you will find that your employer will provide return transport for you.
The Hospitality Industry This is one of the big job providers for travellers. Jobs in this industry include hotel reception jobs, working in a bar/restaurant, kitchen work. Most of these jobs are found around city centres so transport is not a problem.
Short and Long term temping assignments This industry encompasses all different types of office work, such as IT, Graphic Design, telesales, sales and promotion, accounts, banking and even personal assistant work. These jobs are again focussed around city centres and are the most popular working options, as the longer/short term contracts are reasonably flexible.
Home help and Au Pair a great choice for anyone who has had experience working with children. You’ll get to live with a New Zealand family and see their way of life and you might even be lucky enough to get a free holiday away!
Farm Work Experience life on a Kiwi farm with a bit of manual farm work. Farm work can be paid or it can be voluntary in exchange for free accommodation and food.
Just like when you are looking for work in this country, you will need to take some copies of your CV with you, which should have two e-mail addresses of previous employers for reference purposes.
Typical Rates of Pay
- Au Pair - $120-200 per week
- Banking - $14-30 per hour
- Childcare - $15-19 per hour
- Construction - $18-60 per hour
- Secretarial - $14-20 per hour
- IT - $20-40 per hour
- Fruit Picking - $10-14 per hour
- Hospitality - $11-18 per hour
- Nursing - $18-26 per hour
- Sales/Marketing - $12-45 per hour
Please note: that these wages are the average expected wage. Always confirm how much your wages are before you accept the job.
Tax Numbers
To work in New Zealand you will need to apply for an IRD tax number. Pick up an application from our Auckland centre and we’ll give you a hand filling it out.
24-Hour Emergency Assistance
Both Real Gap and our New Zealand partner have emergency numbers, which means that you can always get in contact with someone if you really need to. You’ll get an NZ 24 hour number and a 24-hour number to get hold of the UK office. So if you have problem, unlikely though it is, you’ll always be able to get hold of someone
Banking
You will have assistance opening a bank account by the NZ team – most of the banks available to you offer a range of services that includes cheque/saving/term deposit accounts and telephone banking. You will be required to have a bank account, as your employer will pay your wages directly into that account. Most people are paid weekly, but you may find that you are paid fortnightly or monthly.
SIM Card and $5 Credit
Included in the project price is a Vodafone SIM card with $5 credit. Make sure you contact your current phone provider to see if you need to have your phone unbarred to accept your NZ SIM.
Other Stuff
During your orientation you will also get some other great stuff...
- One hour of Internet access
- A voucher for a month of luggage storage
- Mail forwarding
- A New Zealand handbook with diary and information
- A drink voucher!
Working Holiday Visa
To get a working holiday visa you will need to between the ages of 18 and 30 years old. You can apply for your own visa online at the New Zealand Immigration website, or we are able to process the visa on your behalf (our fee for this is £100 or £150 if you would like to apply for a 23 month visa). There are two lengths of visa to choose from:
12 months – you can stay in NZ for up to twelve months and you can work there for a maximum of twelve months.
23 months – you can stay in NZ for up to twenty-three months and you can work for a maximum of twelve months and travel for up to eleven months.
Please Note: if you decide to go for the 23 month visa, you are required to have a number of medical examinations e.g. a chest x-ray, blood tests etc.
A doctor from the immigration panel must carry out these examinations and you will incur the fees for this. If applying for the visa through Gap Year for Grown Ups, we will be able to send you out a list of the relevant doctors and the medical forms that you will be required to fill in. If this is the visa that you wish to apply for, you should start the process as soon as possible as you may need to wait for your appointment and immigration will need time to process all your information.
If you are undecided which duration to get, why not just get a 12 month and extend it when you are out there if you need to. You will still be required to go through the medical examinations.
Who can apply?
To be eligible for a work visa under this scheme you must:
- Be a British citizen resident in the United Kingdom at the time of applying, and
- Aged between 18 and 30 years, and
- Not accompanied by children on your visit.
How to apply
To get your New Zealand working holiday visa you will need to provide the following information:
- A photocopy of a British passport (valid for three years and four months from date of application) and a photocopy of a secondary form of ID.
- A completed Working holiday Scheme application form
- Satisfy the NZIS branch in London that your main intention for travelling to New Zealand is to holiday, and that employment is an incidental reason for the visit.
- Have a minimum of NZ$4200 available funds for maintenance.
- Evidence of your return or onward tickets, or sufficient funds to purchase an outward ticket (approx NZ$2000)
More Information on the Working Holiday Scheme
- To apply for your working holiday visa you do not have to have an offer of employment
- You must touchdown in NZ within the 12 months from the date that the visa is issued
- If you select the 23-month visa you are able to enter and exit the country freely. Your 23 months, however, is not accumulative, and your visa is valid for 23 months from your initial entry.
- You are not able to undertake permanent employment
- You cannot work for more than 12 months
- Under this scheme you will not be able to return to NZ on any further working holidays
- You will be required to produce your return ticket or prove that you have sufficient funds for one before you leave for NZ.
- You application will take around 3 weeks to process
- It is inadvisable to make any travel bookings until you get your passport back.
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