In 33 days, I will open a door. A door that belongs to my home of the next months.
My plan to spend the 12 mandatory weeks in the apple orchard, in order to extend my visa, works out. Only I will go back to Hawke’s Bay after one week with my host family to use April’s last two weeks for work. Cause theoretically you have to work only one day per week, to make it count for the extension.
After all bureaucratic and also physically exhausting efforts I can settle in my (in the beginning planned as the only station) host family.
When I really think about it (Attention, try this for yourself. Sorry to all parents.), I am giving myself an outstanding package of New Zealand…
Firstly, one (out of max. 3) months a tourist, no work, just ‘being’ here. In that time, I looked for a host family. The advantage of having the applicant sitting in front of you is that huge, you can actually go for the perfect family. Also, that they most likely will accept. Skype is nothing compared to a talk facing each other over a table…
Then I applied for the working holiday visa. Disadvantage: For stays longer than a year you need a health certificate. They cost, but that’s just the way things work. For an extended stay I am more than happy to go through that.
Holding the working visa, you can dive into the life as work-and-traveler. You can spend long days picking apples in screaming heat and think about life, the meaning of education and a qualified job. You learn what saving money means. You learn that work clothes begin to smell quicker. Also, you learn that life is not all fun and games.
So, when you are either sick of it or you completed you 12 weeks for the extension, you can ignite the second stage. You go out to your host family and..well, I will report when time has come.
The calculation in months is easy. My case shows as follows:
1 month on the tourist visa
12 months on the working holiday visa
3 months in extension of the WHV
When I arrive in my family, I will have spent 5 months in New Zealand already. Effectively, 11 months remain. The last of them I would like to spend traveling the South Island, so that I have 9-10 months with the family.
The other disadvantage is the rebooking of my flight ticket. On arrival as a tourist you must show a ticket homebound. It is no problem to extend a flight ticket (doesn’t cost the world). But flight tickets are only extendable over the span of one year. For my stay lasts longer than a year, I had to let the booked flight go and will have to look for a new one. Maybe this could’ve gone smoother, so make sure to speak early enough with your travel agent…
Anyhow, even this circumstance is fully worth the additional time I have here at the end of the world.
Amongst others because of this:
Most Au Pairs arrive at their host family directly and leave them directly for home. 1 year as an Au Pair, some traveling on the side, the end. In the beginning that was my plan, too. But it has changed dramatically.
When arriving at my family, I will be familiar with the Kiwi way of life. Then I have already seen streets, supermarkets, gas stations and mannerisms, food and the slang. Within my stay, being an Au Pair is on the one hand the biggest part, on the other hand not the only one.
And after traveling the South Island, I can have a little ‘reunion’ with the family before I return home. I travel, work, be an Au Pair, travel again and then I go home. After 16 months worth New Zealand…
On a road trip it went up as it often does and this time again, I was not disappointed. New Zealand is SO beautiful!
Remember: For trips with your camera, sunset hours are the best. 😉
In the end of my road trip, I found this place. A world record, only 100km from my current stay! 😀 (The name describes a hill and actually is a full sentence.)
