Work Holiday Thread

[donk.]

This will be my second Work Holiday away from Vancouver

Spoiler!

my last work holiday turned into a long holiday

Gerbs, I know your out and about somewhere, you should dump into this thread too

Why Work Holiday?

Because I'm a little bitch and I dislike the cold weather and rain. especially since I'm outside for work
Furthermore, I can go surfing, enjoy the sun vs being in Vancouver

It's an experience to see if I want to move here long term


Where?



This time around, it's New Zealand, Raglan area for the most of it. Probably end up hitting multiple parts of the north island, and maybe a single location of south island.

I did this before in Australia just pre-pandemic, Gold Coast area, was an incredible 5 months, followed up with Vietnam, Thailand, and Taiwan for a month. could not find literally any job in Australia but that's another story



Who?

Me myself and I, yeah the girlfriend was not happy about it, but she supports my decision, she is gonna come down for two weeks over the holidays.
Some friends said they want to come by during their holidays, but the odds of that happening are slim, flaky bastards

When?

Three months, I'm already here, so you do the math.

How?

Asked my boss for 3 months off, pre summer, he called me a prick several times and proceeded to approve the request

Applied for a work holiday visa, it was approved in less than 24hrs I think
300$cad

Flights 1300$ direct round trip

First month's stay 2200$ for a dinky "side house room/suite"
there is no availability in raglan
Il figure out the rest as I go.

Worst case, if I don't like it, I dip to another country.

Sub-leased my condo in Vancouver, a little less than break even, but for this life experience, I can't complain. So far they paid first month's rent, so that's a win.
Ask me again in three months, if my furniture is still inside the unit when i return.

Jobs

Applied to a bunch of jobs before leaving to NZ, mostly specialized work that I do, didn't hear anything

Applied to a bunch of random jobs when I arrived in Auckland, did not hear anything

A day later I called up several HVAC companies, ended up getting an interview scheduled for a few days down the line.
Had that interview on Friday, by the looks of it I got the job.

I messed up and did not get a bank account / tax number in advance. So now I'm waiting 3-4 weeks before they can legally employ me.

My ADHD is already kicking in...... Too much free time is too much free time.

Transport



6hrs after I landed, I bid on a 07 RSZ, sight unseen, by a local auction website.

The seller had a high rating, looked to be an auto shop based by location / pictures.
It was a sweaty Uber ride to the location, questioning if I just wasted 2500$, and how long before something breaks down.

It was an auto shop, they buy cars from dealers (trade in), then auction off with no reserve.

Car has made it 900km so far.
The temperature is always slightly now, and drops excessively low when on the highway for an hour.
I proceeded to install an air dam infront of the radiator, using my surfboard wrapping foam lol.... It fixed that issue. I'm guessing the thermostat is stuck open

The car is original to Japan, when you turn it on, you have some chick talking Japanese "Sooodessnee!" and "Kiwotsuketekudasai!" every now and then, after 30 mins of driving, you will hear another blurt out.
The first time I heard it, all I thought about was, uh o.... what car warning is this, and what fluid did I run out of....


The drive to work, and to surf

Fuck me, I came here for the surf, but honestly I have more fun driving to the surf, and into the main town.

This is a single road.


One road is 15km of neat gravel, straight up rally shit.
At the start of the road, someone has spray painted "RALLY" on the gravel. At first I had no idea what this meant, but then I found a sign on the way back.
I read the sign, drove past it, stopped, reversed back 100m, to re read the dam thing.



I'm pretty sure the locals straight up close off this road and do FOUL shit to it in their cars.

Another road is 30km of pavement, with several raunchy winding sections (town to town)

[Teriyaki]

Did something similar.
I asked for a 6 month leave of absence. Which I then asked for a 6 month extension.
Then I never went back.

[Hondaracer]

Wife and I are both currently on leave of absence from our jobs

Going on 3 months in Europe, never want to come back lol this was kind of the same trip as to see if we want to move to Europe in the future.

Neither of us can work remotely unfortunately.. she kind of can but I can’t. Might have to find something to shift to thay gives me more flexibility

The trip thus far:

Frankfurt - Wurzburg - Nuremberg - Munich/Oktoberfest - Drogheda Ireland - Slane Ireland - Dubrovnik - Kotor - Mostar - Hvar - Plitvice national park - Opatija - Labin/Pula - Ljubljana - Venice - Sorrento - Capri - Positano - Naples - Rome - Lyon - Chamonix - Burgundy - Barcelona - Portuguese Algarve - Douro Valley - Porto

I won’t do a full write up as to highjack the thread but some thoughts from our trip this far. If anyone wants a bigger write up or more in-depth write up on any location I’ve done a trip report on a different travel forum I’m on and can PM the link.

- the food in Europe sucks. This is our 6th trip in the last 12 years and in shorter stints you don’t really mind but extended periods it really becomes apparent how lacking the food scene is throughout Europe. I mean sure, Italy is fantastic for what it is, France has its high points, but for how much flack the Vancouver dining scene gets, I think you’d be hard pressed to find the level of both quality and variety anywhere else in the world. With that said if Croatia had food like Italy does, it would be a 10/10. I haven’t been to asia yet but I think I can pretty confidently say I’d take a Thailand or Vietnam over the entirety of Europe for cuisine.

- from our entire trip to this point both of us agree Oktoberfest may still be the highlight, and we’ve done some pretty amazing shit so that tells you how fun Oktoberfest is. If you like to drink and Party it’s a bucket list item imo. I will go back 100% and the sooner the better.

Some pics



















This may have been the best pasta I’ve ever had, not in Italy however, this was in Croatia north of Opatija where we were staying. This region is a region known for truffles and we found this 5 star home cooking meal in the middle of the forest basically, insane food and fresh truffle ravioli as in, truffles picked that week. I’m not crazy about truffles but what they put together here was magic

























Insane pasta in Rome. The most hyped places were total let downs. This place, Enzo’s we went back two nights in a row and waited in an hour long line of locals both nights to get in. They served drinks in the line though so it wasn’t so bad lol

[CivicBlues]

What's the age limit for the WHV in NZ now? and how old are you? Looks like you'll have an awesome time regardless of whether you get your job or not.

I did the WHV in Australia 11 years ago now when I was 28 and the cutoff was 30. I was going to stay a full year but ended up staying only 4 months and instead fucking back off to travel more in Asia. Life there was pretty much the same as here except hotter, with more drinking, and more expensive. But I don't regret doing it.

[sonick]

Haha maybe its a post-COVID thing but I, too, am also on a partially-paid 3-month sabbatical at the moment from work.

Seems like a lot of people are catching up from COVID or just simply burnt out from work and COVID life.

While I am not spending my entire time travelling, I did spend a month in Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Taiwan.

One of the best experiences in my life as it coincided with my brother getting married in HK, travelling with my parents for the first time since I was a kid, and getting to experience some really amazing sights and experiences like: a Helicopter tour of HK, Ha Long Bay cruise, etc.

My work does have a work-from-anywhere policy where we can work remotely from anywhere up to 1 month per year, as long as we have 3-hrs overlap with local work hours, however with responsibilities back home I haven't had a chance to use it myself.

[Gerbs]

Me myself and I, yeah the girlfriend was not happy about it, but she supports my decision, she is gonna come down for two weeks over the holidays.
Some friends said they want to come by during their holidays, but the odds of that happening are slim, flaky bastards
^

Relatable, it you wanna get go somewhere, it's best you go first!

[donk.]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

The trip thus far:

Frankfurt - Wurzburg - Nuremberg - Munich/Oktoberfest - Drogheda Ireland - Slane Ireland - Dubrovnik - Kotor - Mostar - Hvar - Plitvice national park - Opatija - Labin/Pula - Ljubljana - Venice - Sorrento - Capri - Positano - Naples - Rome - Lyon - Chamonix - Burgundy - Barcelona - Portuguese Algarve - Douro Valley - Porto

Jesus, you guys doing hotels or airbnb?

Originally Posted by CivicBlues

What's the age limit for the WHV in NZ now? and how old are you? Looks like you'll have an awesome time regardless of whether you get your job or not.

I did the WHV in Australia 11 years ago now when I was 28 and the cutoff was 30. I was going to stay a full year but ended up staying only 4 months and instead fucking back off to travel more in Asia. Life there was pretty much the same as here except hotter, with more drinking, and more expensive. But I don't regret doing it.

I think WHV is 30, while a work visa is 35.

Was hoping to hear you were stuck in Australia for the last 11 years, looks like our trips ended up being the same

[Hondaracer]

Airbnbs and hotels. Basically 1-2 nights use booking.com and anything else AirBnB

We’ve stayed in some amazing airbnbs, the average price per night of these top tier ones we stay in are about 130-165 a night. We’ve stayed full weeks in a bunch of places though so you get a discount

Imo, I’m not one to buy into that “you don’t spend time in the place so you only need to sleep there” having a nice place to come back to every night makes a world of difference, especially in a longer trip like this

[mikemhg]

First question.

Seeing as your GF isn't down there with you -- how many chicks are you planning to fuck?

Prior to leaving did the topic of getting down with some OPP (other people's pussy) occur?

[donk.]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

We’ve stayed in some amazing airbnbs, the average price per night of these top tier ones we stay in are about 130-165 a night. We’ve stayed full weeks in a bunch of places though so you get a discount

Ballin HARD, no wonder your never gonna afford that R8

Originally Posted by mikemhg

First question.

Seeing as your GF isn't down there with you -- how many chicks are you planning to fuck?

Prior to leaving did the topic of getting down with some OPP (other people's pussy) occur?

Nearly spat out my drank

0

I think I can make it 3 months without cheating. My buddy asked me the same question funny enough, and my reply was "my name isn't "resident slut" in my contacts" so il be good
(That's my buddies name in my phone, and he knows it)

Being single in Australia x years ago tho..... That was a blessing.....

[Hehe]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

The trip thus far:

Frankfurt - Wurzburg - Nuremberg - Munich/Oktoberfest - Drogheda Ireland - Slane Ireland - Dubrovnik - Kotor - Mostar - Hvar - Plitvice national park - Opatija - Labin/Pula - Ljubljana - Venice - Sorrento - Capri - Positano - Naples - Rome - Lyon - Chamonix - Burgundy - Barcelona - Portuguese Algarve - Douro Valley - Porto

Any tips for Lyon?

Got a work trip coming up for a week in Lyon region and I think the actual work part is only 4 of those days. That leaves 3 whole days and a few afternoons to explore the city.

So, any tips/suggestions would be appreciated

[Hondaracer]

Lyon is one of the most annoying places I’ve ever been to. A big part of it is this French attitude that is the same throughout the region

For lunch Restaurants open at like 11am and close by 130-2. However if you’re not there between say, 1130 and 1 a lot of the time there isn’t even food to be had anymore. Same goes for dinner, outside of like burger joints and chain restaurants almost every one off restaurant or “bouchonerie” the typical lyonese places only have 1 seating. They open at 7 they close by 930/10. If you’re there at 830 there is this kind of attitude like, why didn’t you show up earlier. Also the hours of operation in google are basically irrelevant. So many places that said they were open were not once we got there.

Also, as our Airbnb host said “places are so busy during the week, they close on weekends”… and then the guy we did two days of wine tours with, a local from the region was like “yea well.. now places are having pressure to open on weekends because of demand” yea.. no shit lol

Reservations are very hard to come by, I got the impression emailing places or even calling in English was an automatic denial of a reservation outside of the top restaurants there which want the international clientele. The small places you want to get into, I’d highly recommend having a French person arrange the reso and ahead of time if possible.

If you’re travelling for work I’m assuming you’re stuck staying in Lyon. However if it was me I’d 100% stay in a different, smaller city such as Beaune to the north in Burgundy or Vienne to the south in the Cote Du Rhone. These places felt so much more charming and quaint and offered much the same in terms of dining and bars etc. on a much smaller scale of course but Lyon really isn’t anything too special. Driving a car here is also a bit of a pain in the ass

Some recommendations:

Le Bœuf d'Argent - a bit fancier traditional cuisine

Food Traboule - this place is awesome, it’s basically a beer/food hall over 3 floors in the old town. They have 7-8 small kitchens serving all sorts of food you order from each individual kitchen and then servers bring you drinks. I got some ribs and nachos from a a guy cooking “American bbq” which was a huge relief after needing some variety lol, it’s also super affordable

Les Encaves - a more modern place not so much Lyonese but good

Le Café Des Féderations And Chez Paul - these places are the traditional bounchonereie (sp) right next to each other. I think you could go to either to get the experience. Pretty good traditional Lyonese set menus, good value for what you get

Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse - this is a market hall with lots of food options to eat on site if you want, def worth a visit

The metro in Lyon works very well and is a must-use because walking places takes forever due to the lack of bridges etc. if you’re outside the city centre if you can get onto the main metro line, I forget which one it is, which terminates at Perrache station, this line brings you everywhere you want to go in terms of old town and dining

If you have a car day trips to Dijon/Burgundy or Annecy/Chamonix are possible. Chamonix is basically a not as nice whistler but they have an amazing cable car that goes over the glacier and down into Italy. The whole reason for us going was going to be this cable car and of course it was closed when we went.. Annecy is superrrr nice though at the food of the alps, it’s a beautiful region.

Burgundy and the other wine regions are very hard to navigate if you don’t speak French and I think even if you do, If you don’t have someone to hold your hand and facilitate visiting wineries it’s quite intimidating. Id look online to book some tours and tastings. We went on 3 there but I wouldn’t really recommend our guide. It was OK but I think you could do better.

[mikemhg]

Originally Posted by donk.

Ballin HARD, no wonder your never gonna afford that R8



Nearly spat out my drank

0

I think I can make it 3 months without cheating. My buddy asked me the same question funny enough, and my reply was "my name isn't "resident slut" in my contacts" so il be good
(That's my buddies name in my phone, and he knows it)

Being single in Australia x years ago tho..... That was a blessing.....

Props to you sir, 3 months.. Jeez, I'm not quite sure if I'd have that discipline.

I'd have to get my dick wet, and I'm not only talking about the ocean..

[tiger_handheld]

how are you guys all affording 3 months of leave from you job?

how do you pay for kids?
pay a mortgage/rent in vancouver?

[donk.]

Originally Posted by tiger_handheld

how are you guys all affording 3 months of leave from you job?

how do you pay for kids?
pay a mortgage/rent in vancouver?

No kids, don't want any
Properties are rented out
The place I rent, sub-leased for 3 months

The rest is just saving them cash moneys

[mikemhg]

DINK life is the life to have.

Dual income no kids..

[Hondaracer]

Drinking wine on Capri > changing diapers?

We also rented out our place to a friend who conveniently needed a place for a few months but we had fully intended to let it sit empty. We actually managed to save a chunk of money for once in our lives lol. Once you’re actually here it’s not TOO bad.. so much of the cost of travelling is just getting to and from a destination

[68style]

Loving both your guys photos and experiences!! Great writeups!

[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

Not sure if I didn't notice before, or maybe I was stuck behind someone slowing down that knows the area each time before

Went onto the Google's, and sure enough there's a speedcam

Do the crime, pay the fine, all good

What was interesting, is that recently, the entire of NZ has changed its speed triggers.
If you are going 1kmh over the speed limit, 30$ fine, and so forth every 10kmh afterward
600k in fines for 2021, pushing 3mil for 2022 from the new system (entire country)

After talking shit with my airbnb host that lives in the main house, turns out there was a section of road that was changed from 50kmh to 40kmh a few months ago, and then changed to the new 41kmh fine system
A SINGLE speed camera got 600 fines in a matter of X HOURS on the first day

Man I had a chuckle at that, if this was Vancouver, there would be riots

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

I don't even know the speed limits of the roads, I just follow suit, it's impressive how 90% of the population here just bombs it down the windy roads.
They have "slow driver" sections everywhere, and 3/4 people will actually pull over, let everyone pass, and then get back into "traffic"

Non speeding....



aaaaaaaand the weather is rain for 7+days fuck

[Hondaracer]

I guarantee you they are modelling that after the Australian system.

Whenever our Australian friends come to Canada they are tripping driving with me or driving themselves because they would never dream about doing 15-20 over the limit. They say Australia basically fund a fuck load of public services through speeding tickets and traffic stops and it’s just like that, anything over the limit auto ticket, auto fines etc.

[nabs]

You guys are almost making me feel like taking my full Pat leave and fucking off for a few months.

[CivicBlues]

Back when I was there, I got two speeding tickets on the same stretch of rural road in Victoria, Australia. Once going, and once again going back. Tickets were $300 bucks total and were waiting for me back home at my parents place when I went back for Christmas. The violation?

...2km/hr over the limit.

A Big to the Victoria State Government and Victoria State Police

[Hondaracer]

Yea.. our friends one is a woman who grew up most of her life in Vancouver and the other guy is from aus but they’ve both been there together now for 12-15 years I think

They drove some POS geo tracker to Manning and it took them like 5 hours because they can’t break out of that speed limit habit lol. Don’t blame em if you’re getting slammed with tickets alll the time

[CivicBlues]

And the fucked up thing is, when speed limits are enforced so strictly in a country I become a nervous wreck and constantly check my speedometer and rear view for tailgaters - taking my eyes off the road. Which is what happened Iceland this year when I learned their fines can be up to $600. But at least there they have huge warning signs before you come to a speed camera.

I did end up getting a speeding ticket in France this year for going 90 in an 80 zone (their tolerance is 10% over the posted speed, so that's reasonable) and while I was annoyed that they emailed it to me 2 days later I was pleasantly surprised it was only 45 Euros.

Would be much safer if people just drove according to the conditions and road design.

[68style]

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