Visa type: working holiday visa

What we fixed upfront:

Airline

• Flights with Qatar airways ( 2352 NZD per person one way)

🛫Brussels – Doha – Melbourne – Adelaide – Auckland

(yes this many layovers!)

In Auckland

• 1 night in an airport hotel (142 NZD)
• 1 night in a 4-star hotel near the city center (209 NZD)
• 8 nights in an Airbnb around Auckland (114 NZD/night)
• a (transfer) Wisecard to get better rates than the bank (13 NZD)

What we didn’t book upfront:

• the mother of all jetlags
• Ross and Anne (2 lovely random people we met during the Melbourne layover)
• unprecedented tropical rain in Auckland (all-time record during summer)

But we still had to fix:

• an umbrella (0 NZD thanks Millenium hotel)
• a mobile plan: Vodaphone unlimited (80 NZD +35 NZD to add a partner)
• an IRD number: tax number to be able to work (online and free)
• a bank account: we chose Kiwi bank
• –> you’ll need your IRD first. There is no chance you can open up a simple account with any bank yourself, you’ll have to make an appointment (!).
• Coffees that will make Starbucks look like a joke.

What we now still have to fix

• a reliable Toyota van (we are looking on Facebook marketplace or the famous website Trademe)
• oh and perhaps, if possible some kind of a job (we’ll look for that while we’re on the road)

The mother of all jetlags

Although the flights themselves were relatively comfortable, we did have two brutal layovers: one in Melbourne (6 hours) and one in Adelaide (12 hours). Luckily we applied for a Transit visa that allowed us to leave the airport in Australia. We of course immediately headed out to the beach! Who would not? Our cab driver was gonna bring us to thé best place (probably with thé best price ;)). The place was called Glenelg and we have to say that the town and beach looked astounding. We 100 percent would recommend it!

Because we had left the transit zone, we had to pick up all of our luggage, go through customs and store all of our luggage in a locker. 3 hours before our flight we had to clear customs (again!) to be able to go on the final flight to New Zealand.

@ Customs in Australia, they do not joke around. You should have something to declare. whether it might be some dirt on one of your hiking shoes or a recent visit to a farm. Don’t forget to mention you’ve had contact with your lovely dog named Pickles at home. I think in total we had to go through some sort of security about 6 times. Sometimes your laptop goes through a second scanner even after they have just scanned it. It seems perpetual.

Funny side note: The new Belgian passport is a pain in the … The moment customs see the big drawings of the red rocket of Tintin (Kuifje) on the first pages, they will kindly ask you to step aside for a little chat. They will start looking at your passport with magnifying glasses like you are literally in a comic book story.

Okay so you started your trip on the 23rd of January and 45 hours later you made it to New Zealand soil! Getting pumped for being completely disoriented.

Unprecedented rain

We were lucky, to say the least, to have arrived a day before the catastrophic rain fell on the Auckland region. A few people died and a thousand people were stranded at the airport! The images of the flood were heartbreaking. Cars and houses were being washed away. On the 27th around noon, we called an uber to get us out of the city for our next stay. The town of Chatswood lies 88m above sea level. Sheer luck! As the heavy showers continued we fell asleep due to our jetlag. Not being aware of anything that was happening in Auckland. It was only during nighttime (again jetlag) we noticed the whole floor and carpet were soaked (inside our room in an Airbnb residence on top of a hill). Our Airbnb host told us she had to get 20l of water sucked out of the carpet. Sheer luck saved us from not leaving our laptop and other stuff on the ground. 10 soaked t-shirts later we were fine.

What’s next?

Once we have a van, we’ll fuel up and travel for a bit! The plan is to see a bit of the North Island that we haven’t seen the last time we were in New Zealand. After that, we would want to make our way to the South Island. Christchurch looks like a promising city with work opportunities and stunning nature.

We think it is wise to see as much of the South Island before summer’s over.

Ka kite anō!