Work Holiday Thread

[donk.]

Originally Posted by 68style

donk are you carrying a drone with you everywhere you go? That seems so crazy but I love the shots!

No, only if I'm going somewhere I know it's gonna be worth it. Coastal / mountains / rare scenic spots. It's quite small, even with the controller and extra batteries.

I useto carry a full DSLR around with multiple lenses during travel, I've swapped to a quickshot with raw capability + the drone now

[donk.]

Work

Finally got a bank account, was way more difficult than Australia for some reason....
Tax number came in two days after applying

Should be starting work in second week of December, was hoping to get going this week but oh well, gonna have to fuck the dog for another two weeks

Roads

Went up to Cathedral Cove today, my god, there was over 20km of twisty road on the 200km drive
Just to top it off, the speed limit is 100kmh
They have "warning signs" in certain sections as low as 45kmh.
In other words, we suggest you do 45, but anything between 45-100 is ok

What an absolute riot to drive.

Photography

So after using drones for 7ish years, today I managed to baptize the dam thing in salt water when the gps was not holding inside a cave.
Luckily it was after my third flight, and I got most of the photos that I wanted from the area.
There goes 500$, on the grand scheme of things, a 500$ loss over the span of 7 years is pretty good
I pulled the SD, il find out in a couple of days if it's corrupt or not, photos to follow

Now I gotta lowball some locals for new mini 2

[TOS'd]

Originally Posted by donk.

Photography

So after using drones for 7ish years, today I managed to baptize the dam thing in salt water when the gps was not holding inside a cave.
Luckily it was after my third flight, and I got most of the photos that I wanted from the area.
There goes 500$, on the grand scheme of things, a 500$ loss over the span of 7 years is pretty good
I pulled the SD, il find out in a couple of days if it's corrupt or not, photos to follow

Now I gotta lowball some locals for new mini 2

I had a friend who was lining up his drone for a group shot along the shore of a lake. He decended at an angle towards us and planned to level out a few feet above the water and fly directly towards us at the shore. We all watched it come down and then heard a plop sound. He misjudged the distance to pull up at and dove straight into the lake. We weren't able to retrieve it so all footage from before was lost as well.

[donk.]

Originally Posted by donk.

Speeding

Coming back from Hamilton to Raglan an hour ago, three of us in slalom the entire way, 5km before raglan, I see a flash for the first car, second car, and myself as a third, looked to be a speed camera

Now I wait for my Xmas present and find out how much over I was

Got my xmas present:

112km in a 100km zone, 80$ fine

In other news
Thank fuck my sd card did not corrupt from baptizing my drone, il post some more in photo thread later on









Booze and Casinos

Every time i go to get booze at a liquor store, about 50% of the time i cant buy it because i dont have my passport on me, local laws state unless you have a NZ ID, passport is mandatory.
I have not been ID'd once at any restaurant

Anyways, me and the GF go to a casino, and as we are walking up, im like: shit im prolly not gonna be let in, i left my passport at home.

So we proceed anyways, they check my canadian DL, dont even scan it, and let us in.....



You want booze? PASSPORT!

You want to lose money? COME ON IN!

Surfing

First month has been 2-4ft waves for the most part, 6-8ft swells on rare days.
This Weds and Thurs were monsters, 12-15ft, people just getting destroyed myself included.
Going from 6ft surf to 12ft surf is no joke, snapped two fins this week, guessing my cord wrapped around it and then the water does the rest.
No one follows rules, just like surfing anywhere, people dropping in, people being cut off, typical angry people shitting on each other.

[donk.]

Originally Posted by TOS'd

I had a friend who was lining up his drone for a group shot along the shore of a lake. He decended at an angle towards us and planned to level out a few feet above the water and fly directly towards us at the shore. We all watched it come down and then heard a plop sound. He misjudged the distance to pull up at and dove straight into the lake. We weren't able to retrieve it so all footage from before was lost as well.

All he would have heard is his wallet opening to let out a tear

[donk.]

work

Finally got a week in at the new company, I was expecting to do some work, but my god..... These guys bring on a new level of fucking the dog.

Had 40hrs ish, and only 8hrs of actual work, probably less.
Back home it would probably be 32hrs of work, and 8hrs of dogfucking, or you simply go home if there's nothing going on

My original hiring email said something along the lines of "we are looking forward to you joining our company, and we hope you can make a substantial contribution over your next two months"
Yeah ok.....

On Friday there wasn't much going on, so they sent a third guy, to help me and my coworker, to take gear off a roof.
It took the three of us 20 minutes to get 400lbs off the roof, and then we just talked shit for 3 hours.
Honestly it's painfully to sit around this much, but I guess these guys are useto it. It's like a roadwork crew in Vancouver, one guy in the hole, and 8-12 guys watching him.

inflation

9$ for a mango, dawg.........
18$ for the cheapest combo at Wendy's

I feel like cost of food is quite high here, vs Vancouver. Then again, in Vancouver min wage is 25% less for grocery store and fast food workers

random other notes

Bear with me, with the below mom-husband-daughter terms, I'm esl

One of the guys I work with, hit the family lotto.
His mom has a newer husband, that husband has several daughters.
Turns out one of the daughters was stealing from his pensions fund, since she watched over it or something. The husband found out and lost it on her. Originally he was going to give the house to the daughters or such, not anymore.
My coworker was in the right place at the right time, and offered to pay off the mortgage, like 200k or something, on a 700k place, and his mom and the husband can keep living there.
The husband took the offer, so my coworker banked like 500k off his mom's husband essentially.
He then used a heloc to buy another house, that went up 150k in the last two years.
Parents are getting old, so he is actually moving in with his mom and her husband, to take care of them.

[Gerbs]

Living vicariously through you!

[Hondaracer]

The rest of my pics, Chamonix and Mont Blanc, Burgundy, Lyon, Barcelona, and a month in Portugal in numerous destinations





Annecy





Burgundy







Did 3 private all day wine tastings, in each Cote de Rhone, Beaujolais, and Burgundy





Barcelona













Portugal, Lagos. We had a 3br apartment here with these infinity pools that would be 2 million bucks in Burnaby for $110 a night































Portugal is famous for its egg tarts for those that don’t know, they are quite similar to the Chinese egg tarts but are more of a soufflé I’d say as opposed to the filling I’ve had in Chinese ones. We ate egg tarts all over Portigal until my pants wouldn’t fit anymore but finally when we got to Lisbon we went to the mecha of egg tarts, Pasteis de Belem. It’s not often places live up to the hype but literally any other egg tart we ever ate across Portugal was a 6/10 compared to these lol













If anyone ever has any questions or is looking to plan a trip hit me up, I think I’ve seen enough in Europe and understand European travel enough to build or at least guide a pretty good itinerary

[sonick]

We had a Portugal trip all booked and planned out for April 2020 before COVID hit, those pics are great.

Did you have the huge cheese and beer sauce covered sandwich, francesinha? Known in Porto, sounds like you only did the Algarve and then Lisbon.

[Hondaracer]

Originally Posted by sonick

We had a Portugal trip all booked and planned out for April 2020 before COVID hit, those pics are great.

Did you have the huge cheese and beer sauce covered sandwich, francesinha? Known in Porto, sounds like you only did the Algarve and then Lisbon.

Has a couple, I dunno how people eat these on a regular basis but it is right up my alley lol.





We spent 24 days in Portugal. Spent 2 nights in Villanova Milfontes, a week in Lagos, explored the entire Algarve. Then 2 nights in Evora, 3 nights in Leiria, 1 night in Viseau, 3 days in Lamego with 2 private port wine tours, 6 days in Porto (we stayed in Gaia however) 1 night in Aveiro, 6 days in Lisbon

[mikemhg]

Those pictures look great man.

We're heading down to Belize for 2 weeks in February here, can't wait.

[Hondaracer]

Here’s a story.. this is one of the biggest fuck ups I’ve done travelling lol. So we rented a car in Portugal from this lesser known rental company, they didn’t even have a booth or a wing like enterprise etc. does, the guy met us in arrivals and dropped us off our 33,000kms mistubishi space star.. lol

So we drive 3 hours south heading to the algarve, spend 2 nights at this little beach town, and then continue on, pumped for our crazy AirBnB. Driving through this tiny town in the middle of nowhere I figure I will fill up and not have to worry about it.



Ended up filling up half a tank of “gasoleo” rather than Gasolina..

Needless to say we drove another 10 minutes outside of town and the car died completely. Wouldn’t even turn over again fuckkkkkkkk

So I hiked back into town and using google maps I walked to 4 different garages, the first garage looked by far the most legit, multiple lifts etc. and the receptionist there spoke perfect English however she said they had no time.. there was a large Indian contingent here and I walked to 3 more garages trying to plead my case with no luck.. some really weird shit happening in these Indian garages too, guys giggling behind sheets, one guy, the owner of the garage was giving another guy a hair cut in the lobby.. etc ..

Basically thinking I’m fucked and might have to call the rental company I walk up the street and see a tow truck so I basically jump in front of the tow truck and try to explain the guy I’ll pay cash for him to tow the car back into town. He doesn’t understand but calls someone then hands me the phone..

It’s the woman from the first garage.. obviously annoyed lol.. I say look, I know you’re busy but I’m out of options, I can wait till tom or the next day but you guys have gotta do this for me please.. she finally agrees and says bring her the keys.

I hike all the way back to the car, grab my wife and the keys and walk back to the garage. She doesn’t know when they will be able to do it etc.

So I have an AirTag in the glove box and we find this weird “resort” hotel to stay at for the night in literally middle of nowhere Portugal, at 9:30 that night I see the AirTag bouncing around, great they found it to tow..

The next morning the woman calls me and says it’s all finished, working fine etc

“And yes sir, it’s going to be.. $115 euros, hope that’s ok”

Lol!! I was ready to pay $1000 or more, I just didn’t want to call the rental company. So back on the road and ready to go!

Needless to say this Space star didn’t quite run the same for the remaining 22 days lolol but the rental car was none the wiser!

[unit]

just looked it up and gasoleo is actually diesel, which makes me wonder wtf is 'diesel' gasoleo...

did the pump nozzle fit into the tank no problem?

[underscore]

I'm guessing it's regular gas, premium gas, premium diesel, regular diesel?

[Hondaracer]

Yes.. honestly I was just an idiot and should have clued in but I was just on auto pilot. We had 2 previous rental cars for almost 4 weeks before I got this one and I’m almost certain in both Croatia and France the labelling and pumps are similar to North America..

And yes every nozzle fits into the gasoline engine unlike here. To throw in an added twist, some pumps in Portigal had a yellow nozzle lol..

Obviously should have clued in with the octane number as well..

Lol on a different travel forum I’m on I told this story and some fucking knob from Sweden is like “well.. if you understand the European system of labelling the diesel pumps have a square on them symbolizing diesel while the petrol pumps have a circle” (on the handle itself)

It’s like yea thanks bro, if the pump Color and fucking labelling on the pump itself wasn’t enough for me, I surely know what these tiny symbols mean lol

[bcrdukes]

lol noob

[68style]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

Where is this at? Stunning!

[Hondaracer]

The initiation well in Sintra, Portugal

It’s not an ancient thing as you’d think by the looks it of. It’s only 100-150 years old I believe. Some rich guy had a massive property and a castle and he was obsessed with the knights Templar, so he paid to have this “initiation well” dug. The bottom goes out through a system of caves and they had parties and stuff there

[CivicBlues]

Hey Donk, so we've decided to go to NZ this year and booked 3 weeks in May. Going to fly into Auckland and make our way down to Christchurch with a rental car.

Prolly going to hit up the usual tourist sites in the North for a week and then do 2 weeks in the South.

Wanna see in the North: Auckland > Cathedral Cove > Rotorua > Worm Cave > Tongariro

Don't know if it's better to drive the whole way (taking the ferry between the islands) or loop back into Auckland (or Wellington?) drop off the car and fly into Queenstown and then get another car from there. Price wise, it's about the same surprisingly as 1-way car rentals are super common it seems. Anyways any thoughts on this?

Then in the South wanna see:
Abel Tasman > Kaikoura > Franz Josef > Wanaka > Queenstown > Milford Sound > Mt Cook > Lake Tekapo > Christchurch

Realize you probably haven't been to that many places since your doing a WHV and umm...working? Or maybe you have *shrugs*. Looks like you're based in the North. Why did you choose that town? Any tips for saving money and stuff I should be aware of? Hotels seem reasonable compared to N.America...is there a catch? Driving tips? Sounds like speed cameras are going to be a thorn in my side again. I'm guessing google maps directions underestimate drive times too?

[donk.]

Originally Posted by CivicBlues

Hey Donk, so we've decided to go to NZ this year and booked 3 weeks in May. Going to fly into Auckland and make our way down to Christchurch with a rental car.

Prolly going to hit up the usual tourist sites in the North for a week and then do 2 weeks in the South.

Wanna see in the North: Auckland > Cathedral Cove > Rotorua > Worm Cave > Tongariro

Don't know if it's better to drive the whole way (taking the ferry between the islands) or loop back into Auckland (or Wellington?) drop off the car and fly into Queenstown and then get another car from there. Price wise, it's about the same surprisingly as 1-way car rentals are super common it seems. Anyways any thoughts on this?

Then in the South wanna see:
Abel Tasman > Kaikoura > Franz Josef > Wanaka > Queenstown > Milford Sound > Mt Cook > Lake Tekapo > Christchurch

Realize you probably haven't been to that many places since your doing a WHV and umm...working? Or maybe you have *shrugs*. Looks like you're based in the North. Why did you choose that town? Any tips for saving money and stuff I should be aware of? Hotels seem reasonable compared to N.America...is there a catch? Driving tips? Sounds like speed cameras are going to be a thorn in my side again. I'm guessing google maps directions underestimate drive times too?

Missed this message

I dont think you can go wrong with literally any itinerary. Just prey the weather does not go to shit. When we went down south of north island, it was raining the entire week, didnt get to see taranaki like i wanted to.

Cathedral cove was amazing, keep in mind you need to park about 1hr away, take the shuttle, then walk 30 minutes to get there. There is no parking at the loop.
Or...... about 200m before the loop, theres a house with "day parking" for 20$ or something. I did this, because im lazy, and the shuttle was done for the day, plus i arrived just before sunset and did not have time to dick around.

Auckland..... is just another major city honestly, i tend to avoid these while on vacation, depends what your activities are like for your 3 weeks.

Rotorua was epic, i have never seen natural geysers, they are littered in this area. Spend the money, and go to the natural hot pools. Reminds me of japanese onsen.

Tongariro was worth it as well, lots to see in that area, there are a few short 1hr hikes to waterfalls and such from gravel parking lots.

As for the worm cave.... i didnt go, but if its anything like Australia, its all photoshopped tour images, and highly dependent on the time you go. At best, you will see somewhat glow from the worms. I believe night time is best if you want the full experience.

Cant comment on flying vs ferry and south island, you will need to report back dawg. Slightly jealous of you planning to go to Milford Sound, that was #2 of my NZ must do, but the surf got me instead. Never made it to south island.

I did one month in Raglan, last two months in Hamilton. Why here? Because i prefer mid sized towns. More importantly this trip was about surf + future of work.
Raglan = surf
Hamilton = work. Note: Hamilton is not much of a "tourist" destination.

The speed cameras trigger 1km over the limit, they are spread all around NZ. i would not worry too much, if your only 10k over, its like 40$, 20k over, 80$, just add it to your trip cost. Or if your a nun, then do the speed limit.
Drive times are quite accurate i would say, dont forget to add 30mins-1hr to your drives for stops, food, piss breaks, etc.

I did airbnb for 95%, when the GF came down for 2 weeks, we sorta did half hotel half airbnb depending on the scenario. BOOK EARLY if you can, lots of places had 0 vacancy, but this was over xmas break, and we sorta did day by day plans, not weeks in advance.
Other saving money tips.... honestly i look for the cheapest place to stay possible, then dont feel bad spending money on food, experiences, etc. At the end of the day the place you book to stay is just a bed, thats all. The gf did open her wallet in Rotorua for hot tub in our unit, she got the D as reward.


With that being said, my trip is coming to an end, the Snow thread is giving me PTSD for returning to vancouver in a few days

Floods, cyclones, earthquakes:

As some of you heard, there was record rain this year in NZ, Auckland had massive flooding.
The road to Raglan near me collapsed.
Both roads to Cathedral collapsed and infilled





Then a cyclone hit

Then an earthquake hit south island and caused more damage

Bed bath and Beyond decided to do a promotion, the locals will no longer be buying from BBBY



Work

Was overall a success, the company is onboard with me coming back yearly as a temp. Now i gotta convince the GF to sizzle down and let me go yearly for x months.



Never seen a praying mantis in real life before, these guys for some reason show up on ac equipment



Expenses

Prices estimated in CAD:

1400$ - Flight direct round trip
6500$ - 3 months of stay, mostly 1 month furnished units off airbnb
2200$ - Car purchase
670$ - Car maintenance - repairs - insurance - speeding fine
1100$ - Gas: 6000kms / 500km tank
1000$ - Surf board / wetsuit / broken fins
500$ - First drone
600$ - Second drone
3000$ - Food
300$ - Clothing
500$ - Experiences / tours
200$ - Travel insurance / phone plan /

Total: 17,790$ estimate for 3 months
Or 10,270$ with below "income"

+1500$ Car sold on auction (was expecting more... when i bought the auction went to 2200$, maybe because i bought in Auckland...)
+6000$ Employment


Overall

100% worth it, anyone who can, i would highly suggest a work holiday to any country.
Bored with life? = work holiday.
Wife divorced you? = work holiday.



I got a few days left here, as the locals say: sweet as

[CivicBlues]

Thanks man appreciate your input. I've actually kept an eye on the Cyclone and it looks pretty bad. I'm hoping things will be fine in a couple months when I arrive. We've actually made all the bookings now for the N. Island and cut out Cathedral Cove because it seems like the direct roads there are all washed out and don't really feel like doubling the drive time to see a beach. Hope that's not a mistake!

So the first week of my itinerary now is Auckland > Worm Caves > Rotorua >Taupo> Tongariro > Wellington > Ferry to S. Island

Don't know if I'll be able to do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing though. Have you done that? Seems like a lot of the trail shuttles stop in April and then the weather turns to shit. Ah well. LOL we also sprung for the Hot Tub in the Rotorua hotel too before I read your comment, hope it's worth it!

Doing research seems like almost any popular natural has an admission fee slapped on it and even hiking shuttles that cost like $40 to get you to the trailhead. IS it really as bad as it seems? Point of comparison just went to Iceland last year and while shit was generally expensive, almost every attraction was free except for $5-10 parking every once in a while. Even the geysirs and geothermal areas were free there. But Rotorua's attractions cost like $30-50 bucks per head? How do they justify that?

[Gerbs]

Living good!

Do you know if there's a lot of people doing working holidays with similar office jobs in Canada? I heard a few years back majority of people had to leave office jobs and worked mainly tourism / farm work when they did the working visa.

[donk.]

Originally Posted by CivicBlues

Thanks man appreciate your input. I've actually kept an eye on the Cyclone and it looks pretty bad. I'm hoping things will be fine in a couple months when I arrive. We've actually made all the bookings now for the N. Island and cut out Cathedral Cove because it seems like the direct roads there are all washed out and don't really feel like doubling the drive time to see a beach. Hope that's not a mistake!

So the first week of my itinerary now is Auckland > Worm Caves > Rotorua >Taupo> Tongariro > Wellington > Ferry to S. Island

Don't know if I'll be able to do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing though. Have you done that? Seems like a lot of the trail shuttles stop in April and then the weather turns to shit. Ah well. LOL we also sprung for the Hot Tub in the Rotorua hotel too before I read your comment, hope it's worth it!

Doing research seems like almost any popular natural has an admission fee slapped on it and even hiking shuttles that cost like $40 to get you to the trailhead. IS it really as bad as it seems? Point of comparison just went to Iceland last year and while shit was generally expensive, almost every attraction was free except for $5-10 parking every once in a while. Even the geysirs and geothermal areas were free there. But Rotorua's attractions cost like $30-50 bucks per head? How do they justify that?

You will be fine without cathedral, as an alternative if your schedule changes, Three Sisters, on the west coast was actually nicer in my opinion. (Need to come at low tide tho)

Nah, we arrived late to the crossing, went to Taranaki waterfalls instead. 1hr walk from the gravel carpark

Private hot tub in hotel is always worth it dawg

Yeah the natural hot pools (both the ones you swim in, and just walk around) both have a fee of about 40$ per person. I mean it is a business, plus the maintenance costs and staffing ain't cheap. Some people spend 40$ in two days on cigarettes....

We went to Polynesian Spa, and Waiotapo Thermal Wonderland. I would highly suggest both.
The Spa is just a bunch of outdoors "natural" hot tubs with minerals, nice to lay around after x hours / days of driving.
The Thermal Wonderland was crazy, the colors of the pools really are neon, never seen anything like it before.

If you want to save money, there's a bunch of free thermal attractions and natural hot pools, we just didn't have time, crunched time budget for us.

At the end of the day, your blowing 1500 on flights, another 1500 on a place to sleep, and 1500 on food, PER PERSON, what's an extra 150-300$ in entrance fees.

You can pay off those entrance fees by working one extra day back home, ggnnaamm saayyyiinn. Plus, when will be the next time you get to see some of this stuff?

[donk.]

Originally Posted by Gerbs

Living good!

Do you know if there's a lot of people doing working holidays with similar office jobs in Canada? I heard a few years back majority of people had to leave office jobs and worked mainly tourism / farm work when they did the working visa.

Not sure honestly, I'm pretty anti social so didn't ramble much with locals. I do know HVAC/nurses/grocery stores here is ultra thirsty for staff.

Right now it seems like alot of countries are short of staff. If you want to get a job in another country, now is the time. (As long as recession doesn't hit in 6-12 months lol....)

[CivicBlues]

Originally Posted by Gerbs

Living good!

Do you know if there's a lot of people doing working holidays with similar office jobs in Canada? I heard a few years back majority of people had to leave office jobs and worked mainly tourism / farm work when they did the working visa.

I did this 12 years ago but I got a WHV job in Australia in my white-collar office job industry. Just had to put my resume up on websites for contract positions and recruiters do all the work for you there and are actually competent (unlike many of the ones here in Vancouver)