AJLivingstone

In the British winter of 2016/2017 I will be taking a 3 week holiday to NZ on my own. This is very much a holiday to look at future prospects of emmigrating to NZ. I am writing this post in order to gather ideas and thoughts into what I should do while I'm over here.

Things about me:

At the minute I'm 19 - 20 in April and when I visit I will be 21. I am a 2nd year apprentice in Mechanical Maintenance Engineering for a plastic engineering firm.
I am a very sporty person.. my passions are football and cricket, and this is one thing I'd be interested in looking at when I'm in NZ.
I have tattoo's, I have two half sleeve (biceps) and across my chest, they are not loud and garish tattoo's, they are just meaningful. I'd be interested to look at whether they'd be harmful to future work prospects.
I love socialising, whether that's going to the pub with friends, going clubbing, or just attending events in my local area.

So my plans at the minute would be to come over, people are telling me a guided tour, but I'm looking to make this holiday a business type holiday. I'd love to look at housing prospects in areas, have talks with business owners in the Mechanical Engineering sectors, and visit local sporting attractions - attend sporting games, but also look at attending local events in the public domain.

I have no idea where I'd want to look at going, definitely north island... the only places that I can really think of are big cities e.g. Auckland/Wellington. But this is just a thought.

A neccessity for me first is to look at where I'd stay for the time, and how much I'd need for the three weeks.

If you have any help and feel they could positively influence my holiday then that'd be amazing. If you want any more information, then I'd be happy to answer questions

Many Regards,
Alex Livingstone

LauraNotts

What is it that atteacts you to NZ and to the North Island in particular?

AJLivingstone

Thanks for your response

In answer to your questions, the attraction to me occurred when I came over 6 years ago, I just fell in love with the country, I can't tell you exactly what it is about it. I can just tell you I had a great time with family. It's going to be different on my own for the 3 weeks, but it's something I want to do.

Secondly, the thing about the north city, is just more populated. I'm a socialite and if theres more people I am normally more comfortable and confident in myself.

LauraNotts

Hmm I can sympathise with the falling in love part, been there done that landed four years later. Just remember living somewhere is always different to holidaying there. You only get one life though so good on you for exploring something like this.

I am horribly, horribly biased living in Canterbury as I do, but don't discount the South Island out of hand. Its hard to explain to a Brit how different it is being in a country the same size as the UK with less than 10% of the population, both the north and south islands will feel empty in comparison to that. Christchurch (again biased) is on the up, lots and lots of engineering and construction work going on after the quakes. It also has everything else that the cities on the NI have as well as being close to the Southern Alps.

I guess I am just thinking of the answer I gave a Kiwi who asked me why I hadn't moved to Auckland. I said that I used to live in a city of a million people with too much traffic, why would I move 12, 000 miles to do the same thing.

AJLivingstone

I understand about the living comparison to a holiday, which is a reason why I am taking 3 weeks out to go and explore.

Can you go a bit more information about Christchurch or Canterbury? I mean even if I go I wouldn't know where to start especially when it comes to looking at jobs, not exactly sure about the uprise of mechanical engineering either, especially a plastic company as they're quite rare over here.

Is there also sporting areas especially football and cricket (I am a fan of rugby just not as much)

LauraNotts

So Christchurch has a population of about 350, 000 its either the third or fourth biggest city in NZ, its fairly flat and lies on the east coast of the South Island, we get gorgeous summers here and the winters get cold overnight with occasional frosts but generally it gets into double figures during the day.

The city had two significant earthquakes in Sept 2010 and Feb 2011, the evidence of this is still very clear, especially in the central city which was heavily damaged but the rebuild is now in full swing. I've been in Chch nearly a year now and buildings pop up and disappear every other week it seems.

For jobs in your area try Jobs on SEEK - New Zealand's no.1 Employment, Career and Recruitment site and google about a bit to see what is around.

I don't go out clubbing or to bars really but there are plenty of students here and they seem happy. There are loads of great places to eat with more opening or returning post quake. Christchurch has a concert venue which gets some decent acts in, we've had Lorde, the Foofighters, NIN etc though Auckland is usually the port of call if NZ only gets one stop. We have a temporary stadium for our Rugby team (you must embrace the rugby here) and a brand new gorgeous little cricket ground in Hagley Park which will host CWC matches.

AJLivingstone

Just reading through now and your selling Christchurch for me. I mean I'll obviously have to look deeper into it, but it seems by your words as a pretty decent place.

Straight away your making me wish I was at the cwc haha. But as a hypothesis, if I were to move now, say Auckland I'd flat share for round $250 a week, whay would be the cost of living in Christchurch

LauraNotts

Well rents per room are anything from $120-250 depending on whether you get bills included, where you want to live and how nice you want it to be. I pay $140 and I am happy with that.

Now, I love Christchurch and think its a flat out awesome place to live. If I didn't I wouldn't live here BUT because of the quakes there are still issues that affect the city and will continue to do so for a wee while yet. There are A LOT of road works. A LOT. Though you get used to it and the body organising it all hope to have the infrastructure sorted out in the next 18 months (haha) and housing is comparativly expensive here compared to the rest of NZ (except Auckland) because housing was damaged during the quakes.

Search the forum for our many cost of living threads to get an idea of what living here costs

AJLivingstone

I live and drive in England, i know roadworks haha, on my way to work we have 30 miles of 50mph motorway haha

Thanks for the information, are you flatsharing at that price?

I will have a look at other threads, but just a quickie if houses were damaged, surely that would make them cheaper, or has it increased due to lack of available houses?

MrsFychan

Welcome to BE Alex and especially to the NZ portion.

You have a fair while before you consider the move so I think you could possible make, if you can afford it, two trips over. One to cover the North Island and then to do the South Island.

Because you are so young you also have the option of taking up a working holiday visa which would allow you to stay for upto 23mths, dependant on medicals and a certain amount of money in the bank, and move around doing the odd job here and there to get the feel for different places, which could give you the advantage to sussing out how you could take up a more permanent working visa if it ends up being what you want to do.
Two/three/four years time the criteria for uplifting a visa maybe very different to today so you may want to have a look and see how you could do that now and keep an eye on the Immigration site for any potential changes that would affect the process. Do you know if you could qualify for a visa now and if so what visa?

AJLivingstone

Thanks for your input MrsFychan,

I'd love to make it to both islands, but something in me makes me feel that I won't have the funds to suffice a second trip.
The idea of a work holiday visa is pretty nice idea, when you say medicals do you mean if I have any illnesses etc.. And funds, I wouldn't know where to start with the visa. Would I be best sticking to what I know for the work holiday visa which is engineering. How would I go about getting one? Would it be best for me to approach companies while I'm over there?
Where can I find a good immigration site?

Lastly, I have no idea, I'd probably need some help trying to figure it out

Regards,
Alex

MrsFychan

you can get a 12mth working holiday visa where you generally do not need to have medicals or xrays, the 23mth one will require both. generally the WHV allows you move around the country so its generally work in cafes/restaurants or fruit picking but there are lots of sites that list jobs. You are only allowed to work for a certain amount of time during the stay so taking up a long time job would not be allowed but you could apply for a different visa to allow you to take up full time work if it comes under a agreed visa requirement.

http://www.immigration.govt.nz/

is your get to know the ins and outs source. It can be a bit hard to navigate but lots of people have been through the same thing so any questions will probably be answered by just posting a question on here.

Lots of countries do working holiday visas so may be worth checking out some of their criteria as well. I have seen people on here take up WHV's in Canada then move onto to OZ and then pop over to NZ. if thats the sort of thing you think you might like to do then have a look at those countries immigration sites as well.

I think to gain f/t employment in any country you will have to finish your apprenticeship and hope that is on the list to upload a visa.

AJLivingstone

I have all intentions of finishing my apprenticeship and then get a few years under my belt before anything occurs in the form of emmigrating.

So basically what a WHV would count as, is bring enough money in order to suffice, get a job - be able to afford to move, move, then repeat the cycle around the country?

MrsFychan

working holiday visa allows you to take up part time paid work to enable you to fund day to day living. on the 23 month one I believe you can only work for a combined period of 12mths. its just a way to fund extended holiday but would mean boots on ground for you to see if you could find f/t work and apply for a more permanent visa if you fit criteria.

AJLivingstone

Ahh I completely understand it now, I could do that, just depends on my girlfriend if she were to still be with me at that time. It'd be 3 years when I even consider that and if so 23 months apart, would be a test.

What would be the best way to go look for f/t work, would it be going in to engineering companies and speaking to people, or would it be like job centres?