Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Women Travellers
NZ is generally a very safe place for women travellers, although the usual sensible pre-
cautions apply: avoid walking alone late at night and never hitchhike alone. If you're out
on the town, always keep enough money aside for a taxi back to your accommodation.
Lone women should also be wary of staying in basic pub accommodation unless it looks
safe and well managed. Sexual harassment is not a widely reported problem in NZ, but of
course it does happen.
See
www.womentravel.co.nz
for more information.
Work
If you arrive in NZ on a visitor visa, you're not allowed to work for pay. If you're caught
breaching this visa condition, you could be booted back to where you came from.
If you have been approved for a WHS visa, look into the possibilities for temporary em-
ployment. There's plenty of casual work around, mainly in agriculture (fruit picking, farm-
ing, wineries), hospitality (bar work, waiting tables) or at ski resorts. Office-based work
can be found in IT, banking, finance and telemarketing. Register with a local office-work
agency to get started.
Seasonal fruit picking, pruning and harvesting is prime short-term work for visitors.
More than 30,000 hectares of apples, kiwifruit and other fruit and veg are harvested from
December to May. Rates are around $12 to $17 an hour (not much) for physically taxing
toil, working in the dirt under the hot sun − turnover of workers is high. You're usually paid
by how much you pick (per bin, bucket or kilogram): if you stick with it for a while, you'll
get faster and fitter and can actually make some reasonable cash. Prime North Island
picking locations include the Bay of Islands (Kerikeri and Paihia), rural Auckland, Taur-
anga and the Bay of Plenty, Gisborne and Hawke's Bay (Napier and Hastings); on the
South Island try Nelson (Tapawera and Golden Bay), Marlborough (around Blenheim) and
Central Otago (Alexandra and Roxburgh).
Winter work at ski resorts and their service towns includes bartending, waiting, clean-
ing, ski-tow operation and, if you're properly qualified, ski or snowboard instructing.
Resources
Backpacker publications, hostel managers and other travellers are the best sources of
info on local work possibilities.
Base Backpackers
(
www.stayatbase.com/work
) runs an
employment service via its website, while the Notice Boards page on
Budget Backpack-
er Hostels
(BBH;
www.bbh.co.nz
)
lists job vacancies in BBH hostels and a few other pos-
sibilities.
