I wrote about my first three months in New Zealand. As you might remember, it wasn’t that fun. The rest of the milestones—six months, nine months, a full year—I didn’t mark, mostly because I was miserable. In fact, I was pretty darn miserable the whole time I was there. I’ve only recently started to process those feelings and unfold them, layer by layer. But! I’m not here to talk about that today. In fact, I wanted to describe the process for anyone who feels like starting a similar adventure on their own.
I went to New Zealand on a Working Holiday Visa. Simply said, a WH visa enables you to stay in the country for up to a year (or more if you’re from the UK or Canada) and work legally. You don’t have to work, but the rationale is that not many people have the funds to just travel around the country for a year, so here’s a way for you youngsters to meet our beloved Aotearoa and earn some cash while you’re at it.