Over the last four months, my girlfriend and I have been traveling across the stunning landscapes of New Zealand and connecting with countless local Kiwis and other travelers from all over the world. We’ve been living a camper van life which has allowed us to chase the sun and experience New Zealand in a far different way than I did when I was a student on a semester abroad at the University of Auckland some eight years ago.

As summer and millions of tourists descended upon the Southern Hemisphere in January, we sped towards the cooler South Island and settled into Wanaka, a homey, adventure-filled town on the edge of Lake Wanaka and surrounded by picturesque mountains. After working as housekeepers at a campground here for the last couple of months, I started to reflect on what the process was to get to this point. While being a relatively easy country to transition to as a native English speaker, there are definitely some confusing hurdles that we had to overcome. There are little secrets that we’ve been learning that could have easily made our journey smoother. Because of that, I thought I’d offer wisdom to those looking for the adventure of a lifetime.

Applying for a New Zealand Working Holiday Visa

One unique thing about our working holiday is that we’re quite old. This is one thing we definitely did right (we’ll see about that once trying to find jobs back in the real world). Most visitors on working holiday visas in new Zealand are in their early 20s, often-times students who’ve recently graduated and don’t know what to do with their lives. While I encourage everyone to travel as much as they can while in their early 20s, I think that in order to maximize the holiday part of your working holiday, you really benefit from a few years of working to generate a savings. Too many times we met travelers who were forced to work for the duration of their time in New Zealand. The point of the working holiday should be heavily weighted towards travel and the non-work experiences that come with it.

Okay, okay let me get back to the topic on hand.

Applying for the New Zealand Working Holiday Visa is the easiest step in the process. Simply go to Immigration New Zealand and follow the prompts for your specific country. Aside from a handful of countries, the general rule of thumb is that you have to be between the ages of 18 and 30 when you apply and you can stay up to 12 months in New Zealand on your visa. Visitors from some countries/regions, mainly Canada and the United Kingdom, can stay up to 23 months on a visa. Canadians can also apply until age 35. Depending on your country of residence, you may have an application fee of a few hundred dollars. As U.S. citizens, all of our fees were waived and the whole process is completed in a few minutes online. There was also an unlimited quota for U.S. citizens, so there is no wrong time to apply. Just answer a few questions and provide your passport information. Processing for us took just around a week!

Once you’ve received confirmation that you’ve been awarded the working holiday visa, you have one year from the date of confirmation to arrive in New Zealand. Then the 12-month clock on the visa itself doesn’t start until you enter through customs and immigration at the airport. A little tip for those in their 30s - as long as you apply for the visa a few days before your 31st birthday, you can still enter New Zealand as a 31-year old. Immigration NZ just has to receive your application while you are still 30. That means you still have time, 30-year olds!

Requirements for a Working Holiday Visa in New Zealand

According to Immigration NZ, the following are requirements for successfully entering New Zealand on a working holiday visa:

1. You must provide proof of identity.

2. You must be in good health, of good character, and have genuine intentions to meet the conditions of the visa.

3. You must be 18-30 and a citizen of the country the visa is for (have a valid passport).

4. You must have either a plane ticket to leave New Zealand within 12 months or show proof of funds to buy one (in addition to the funds in requirement #5).

5. You must have enough money to live on while in New Zealand (at least $4,200 NZD).

6. You must not have had a working holiday visa previously in New Zealand.

7. You must have full medical insurance for the length of stay (most U.S. health insurance plans will NOT cover you while abroad). 

Health Insurance for New Zealand

Honestly, this was so confusing to figure out. Most travel medical insurance companies won’t cover beyond 180 days. Many won’t even cover beyond three months. U.S. health insurance almost definitely won’t cover you for anything outside of the United States (I mean they don’t even cover you for most things in the U.S., so what do you expect). The easiest solution we found was to go with Orbit Protect, a New Zealand based travel insurance company that specializes in working holiday insurance. They were fairly priced (under $300 NZD for 12 months) and they include coverage for travel outside of New Zealand for up to 9 days at a time. We haven’t had to use them, thankfully, so I can’t comment on actually dealing with them on claims. Other people suggested World Nomads.

If you’re injured in things like a car accident or on a hiking trail, New Zealand covers everybody through the no-fault ACC (Accident Compensation Corporation). New Zealand Government generously doesn’t think getting hurt should ruin your life.

Be sure to check on the latest rules about prescription medication, as you are limited to the amount you can bring into New Zealand without a doctor’s note.

The Best Time to Visit New Zealand

If you’re concerned about finances, the best advice I can give you is to arrive to New Zealand in the off-season or shoulder seasons. Besides the ski-towns in the South Island, New Zealand is considerably dead in the late fall and winter between mid-April and August. A lot of the hiking huts and many of the backpackers/campgrounds halve their rates in the offseason. April and May is also the perfect time to buy a camper van because that is when the summer tourists and most travelers are desperately trying to sell their vans for whatever they can get. I’ll cover this more in a post about buying a camper van, but you can find really nice vans for a third of the price that they would go for in November through January.

If you’re from the Northern Hemisphere and you’re less concerned about finances, visiting from October until May means you get to chase summer and great weather. Plus, by December most of the hikes are fully accessible. You can’t go wrong with three straight summers!

Booking a Flight to New Zealand

Depending on your departure airport, flights to New Zealand can be ridiculously expensive and long. The good news is that more airline choices are available than ever before. Booking three to five months out tends to net pretty good results. Use Google Flights to analyze and track pricing. If flying from the U.S. the best but priciest option by far is Air New Zealand. Other choices included Qantas, Hawaiian Airlines (free stopover in Hawaii!) and United. Both United and Air New Zealand actually codeshare, so check both websites for the same flight. Oftentimes one is way cheaper than the other. Just make sure you book a flight that flies across the Pacific on an Air New Zealand plane (i.e. NZ 1 or NZ 2) and not a United plane.

Transit times from the east coast of the U.S. can be as little as 19 hours or as long as 33 hours depending on layovers. A great price to Auckland would be anything under $1000 USD round trip. Typically you’re looking at $1200 - $1500 though.

What I did was actually use credit card points. If you know how to manage a credit card, get yourself the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card. If you hit the 60,000 point signup bonus you can get 25% more points by booking travel through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal. Alternatively, you can exchange points directly to a number of airlines 1:1. In my case, I transferred 40,000 Chase points to United Airlines and then booked an Air New Zealand flight through the United Awards page (they often sell flights to New Zealand one way for 40,000 United Award Miles), essentially making the flights to Auckland from Boston, free.

Award yourself some flexibility and book just a one way flight if you can. It may be pricier in the end, but you’ll honestly probably want to stay beyond your initial schedule. Having a set departure date adds a surprising amount of stress because you force yourself to cram everything into that time frame. Don’t forget to have proof of funds (like a bank statement) should you choose this option.

Opening a New Zealand Bank Account and Obtaining an IRD Number

Before you leave, you can actually establish a New Zealand bank account from home. The regulations have been tightening regarding proof of address, so this actually caused a lot of stress for us. If you do it beforehand, it makes transferring money a lot easier.

Before you can work in New Zealand you need an IRD (Inland Revenue Department) number which is basically your Tax ID. If you don’t get this number, you will be taxed at a no-declaration rate of around 47% of your earned New Zealand income… not ideal. The problem is that you need to have a New Zealand bank account in order to apply for an IRD number - another reason it’s good to get a bank account immediately.

So how do you get a bank account in advance?

We chose ANZ Bank and opened ANZ GoMoney accounts: https://www.anz.co.nz/promo/moving-to-new-zealand/. Apply within 90 days of your arrival to New Zealand and they’ll contact you with next steps, including scheduling an in person meeting at a branch once you’ve arrived to New Zealand. The best thing is that we could use our U.S. addresses as proof of address (the biggest hurdle we encountered) instead of somehow providing something like a New Zealand electricity bill despite not having an address yet. This loophole is essential for people like us planning to travel entirely by camper van.

Alternatively, we’ve heard that people had luck opening accounts with Kiwi Bank, but that needs to be done upon arrival to the country. Kiwi Bank is part of New Zealand’s postal service.

Pro Tip: Schedule your in-person meeting ASAP. At locations in Auckland we heard there were 3-week waiting periods for appointments in November. Try to schedule an appointment in a smaller suburb or town (we had to wait just a day for one in Whangerei). During your in-person meeting (you can arrange for you and your partner/travel buddies to meet at the same time to make it easier), make sure to bring something like $50 NZD. Once you receive your EFTPOS card (think debit card), you should deposit that $50 NZD in your account and then withdraw some of it. Walk inside the bank branch and ask for a receipt of your recent transactions for the purpose of applying for an IRD. They’ll print and stamp the receipt of transactions for free so that you can provide it as proof of a bank account during the IRD application.

To apply for the IRD, simply follow the steps on the My IRD website after you’re in the country and have full access to a bank account. You can find those steps here: https://myir.ird.govt.nz/eservices/home/_/. We received our numbers by email after a couple of working days.

Arriving in New Zealand

The majority of incoming flights land in Auckland and that is where you’ll be processed by customs and immigration. Your working holiday visa will come in the form of an e-visa, meaning you just need to scan your passport and it’ll recognize your visa. I do highly recommend bringing paper copies of every document and number you’ve obtained. When I flew United Airlines, their system didn’t immediately recognize my visa at my origin airport in Boston. I ended up having to provide a paper copy of my e-visa number to convince the ticketing agent.

New Zealand is known for having some of the strictest biosecurity laws in the world. Do not bring any sort of fruits, honey, or nuts into the country unless you want a massive fine. Also declare anything if you have any doubts. They will run your bags through a scanner and you risk a fine for providing false information. If you’ve been hiking anytime in the last few months, definitely let them know so they can clean your gear.

If you like spirits, make sure you buy these in the duty free section before exiting security inside the airport. New Zealand has insanely high prices for spirits and most other alcoholic drinks. For some perspective, 1L of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey will set you back at the very least $50NZD.

New Zealand Mobile Phone Plans for Tourists

I spent a lot of time early on trying to decide between Vodafone, Spark, Skinny, and 2 Degrees. The simple answer is that Skinny is the best. They run on the Spark network (best in New Zealand) and they offer the cheapest rates along with tons of promotions such as Free Data Weekend in the summer and the occasional doubling of data. They run on a 28-day payment period and plans max out at $77 NZD for unlimited data (40GB before slowdown), talk, and text. Mobile hotspot is also included. I’d suggest the $66 plan with 30GB of data because any unused data will rollover for up to 365 days. You’ll end up with more high speed data that doesn’t get slowed down after 40GB.

Skinny doesn’t have any physical locations, so you’ll have to buy the sim card at select retailers. See here for a list: https://www.skinny.co.nz/wheretobuy

Use my buddy code for a free 4GB: RLF6X6P (Valid until 30 March, 2020).

Finding a Working Holiday Job in New Zealand

Eventually you’ll need to step away from the beaches and mountains in order to find a job. New  Zealand is a country built around tourism, so your best best as a backpacker is to find a job in hospitality. Look for jobs as housekeepers, restaurant staff, or vineyard work if you want something flexible and easier to achieve. The truly best kind of a gig is one where you get free or cheap accommodation in addition to your normal pay.

We found tons of success applying for jobs as housekeepers at campgrounds. Of the six jobs we applied for, we had offers from five the same day. We also had luck just stopping in a store and handing them our CV (a bit like a résumé). The holiday park in Wanaka that we’ve been working at is 30 hours a week and pays $20/hour. Living in our camper van on site is only $35 NZD/week per person.

Other strategies include:

1. Look for listing in local newsletters (The Messenger in Wanaka and The Lakes Weekly Bulletin in Queenstown, for example).

2. Check out the message board at New World or other supermarkets.

3. Try online through https://www.trademe.co.nz/jobs or https://www.seek.co.nz/jobs.

4. Visit the local town Facebook groups that are very active. Queenstown and Wanaka had job pages managed by the community.

5. Visit https://www.backpackerboard.co.nz/work_jobs/job_listings.php and filter opportunities on there.

Finding Housing or Roommates

Finding housing is much the same as finding a job. There are countless posts on Facebook, in local newsletters, or on https://www.trademe.co.nz/flatmates-wanted. Housing is typically paid on a weekly basis, so keep that in mind if you’re low on funds. City life seems to run around $350 NZD to $450 NZD per week. Moving further out is significantly cheaper, but you may lack a lot of entertainment options if you get too rural.

Buying a Car or Van in New Zealand

I’ll soon have a detailed post for this, but buying a car or van is by far the biggest cost you’ll incur. We wanted a comfortable van for two people and six months of travel, so we bought a 2001 Nissan Caravan through a company that builds custom interiors. If you buy a van going into the high season, expect to pay between $8k NZD and $14k NZD for a Nissan Caravan or Toyota Hiace with a long-wheel base. It’s important for it to be certified self-contained as well so that you can take advantage of countless freedom camping spots around the country. There is a huge market for self-contained vehicles through Trademe, Facebook Marketplace, Facebook New Zealand Backpacker Car groups, and Backpackerboard.co.nz. Keep in mind that petrol can be as high as $2.60 NZD / Liter, while diesel is about a dollar cheaper but is subject to a diesel tax that must be paid every 5,000 KM.

Connecting with Other Travelers

If you want to meet other backpackers in New Zealand, it’s super easy. People are also looking for travel buddies or road trip partners. If you stay at any hostels or backpackers, you’ll have no problem meeting people in similar situations. Otherwise, the best place to check out is the Facebook groups like https://www.facebook.com/groups/NZBackpackers/. Hitchhiking is extremely common and a surprisingly effective way for people to get around and meet locals.

Best Places in New Zealand to Shop for Cheap

Supermarket - Pak’nSave
Household items - Kmart or Warehouse
Recycled Items - Wastebusters in Wanaka
Fuel - Gull (May not accept U.S. Credit Cards due to chip and signature on them)
Campermate - Android / Apple to find points of interest, toilets, free campsites, and basically everything you need in New Zealand.
Gaspy - https://gaspy.nz for the cheapest diesel and petrol prices in New Zealand.

I think that should just about cover it for all of the tips for getting started with a working holiday visa! I’ll put together a list of best hikes and places to visit in New Zealand in the future. If you’re even entertaining the idea of quitting your job like us and traveling the world, I absolutely recommend New Zealand as a starting point. Feel free to leave comments or questions below and I’ll try my best to answer them! We had so many questions to begin with but needed to rely on about two dozen blogs and websites to figure it all out. Needless to say, we’re pretty experienced at this point.