Yorksha

.......if this is in the wrong forum but

I'm due to travel to NZ in July as I have pre booked on a Snowboard Instructor Course in Cardrona for 10 weeks. Hopefully this will allow me time out to travel to Wanaka/ Queenstown to seek out potential employers to secure a Job offer. My profession is a Carpenter/ Joiner (19 years exp) as well as teaching (7 years exp inc) these subjects within schools and Colleges.

My questions are really about;

1) The potential for securing a job and which areas/ towns am I best to look in ( southern island preferably) considering my trade and locality

2) Can I easily get rented accomodation if I was to extend my stay after the course has finished

3) I have been notified ( London Expo) that I can apply for a Skilled Visa while I am in the country once securing a job offer. Has anyone experienced this process. How easy/ difficult is it

4) I'm told its cheaper to buy a car than to rent. Is this the case

I apologise for all the questions but I've got lots to think about as you can imagine.

Your thoughts are much appreciated

Hang11

If the snow in July/August this year is anything like it was last year, you'll have a great time

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I think you'll have a nightmare getting reasonably priced accomodation in Wanaka or Queenstown at that time of year, you need to sort it out in May really, as it goes really quickly to all the people working a season there.

If you are wanting to board, you'll need a 4wd really, the access roads to the mountains can get pretty scary, and you could find that on the good powder days, only 4wd's can get up there. Cardies isn't too bad, but TC can get pretty hairy. Renting one for a season will cost you an arm and a leg. Pick up an old Subaru Legacy or something like that for $5k and you should be sweet, and get some decent snow chains for it.

Dunno about the work, but Queenstown and Wanaka are booming, so there's probably plenty of construction work there.

It might be worth looking at moving on to Canterbury after your course finishes, and staying somewhere like Methven or Springfield, where you've got access to 10 mountains and cheaper accomodation options.

Have a look at www.snow.co.nz and www.chillout.co.nz to find out more about that.

Can't wait for the start of the season. 10 weeks to go Hope you have a great time!

Also, you should look at buying a season pass ASAP online, they double in price next week. One for TC costs about $2500 at full rates. The Canterbury chillout ones are a bargain at $550, with some great mountains to ride, although they are a lot more basic in terms of facilites compared to Cardrona, TC, Concrete Peak and the Remarkables. No chair lifts, just dodgy old rope tows, but you can access some sick back country terrain.

Littletoe

I'll share my thoughts, but hopefully other people can provide more info!

1, congrats on the course, sounds like a lot fun!
2, trying to find a rental around the ski areas in the height of the season will be difficult and expensive, try to secure something before you come, or head away from the ski fields when you've finished. Or share with people. People are always looking for flatmates, etc, advertised in the local press, local stores. Have a look at trademe.co.nz for jobs and renting.
3, I don't know anything about your industry, but look at some search engines online for jobs or potential employers and make enquries. Being here will help loads, its much harder to sort out work from the UK.
4, Definetly cheaper to buy, again trademe.co.nz (kiwi equivalent of ebay), we've bought two awesome cars for just over $2k, but there is so much variety on there.
5, the South Island is incredibly beautiful, and the people there are incredibly warm and friendly. People always try to help you out here, so spend some nights around the smaller towns, drinking with the locals. First time we were there that's how we found most of our work.

Anyway, good luck with it, people are really nice on here, I'm sure your'll find lots of useful info!

x

Mandie

Hey just to let you my friend did this and it was dead easy...don't forget you'll need to get your police check done (which takes 40days to come back once submitted) and all the relevant certificates and paperwork, have your medicals done in NZ then take everything along to NZIS and jobs done...visa sorted (my friend had a 'work to residency' visa)

hope that help and good luck

Hang11

Just to get you amped - this is a little thing I did last year for a snowboarding site...


I thought I’d start off a run down of the 2006 season in NZ with a bit about the riding on offer here. It’s really different to Europe, much more low key, no really big resorts, and generally less flashy. Having never been to the North Island mountains, I can’t say much about that.

The South Island has a ridge of mountains running down the middle of it called the Southern Alps. There are a couple of ski areas to the North, Rainbow and Lyford, a few in the South, in Queenstown – The Remarkables and Coronet Peak (aka Concrete Peak), both of these are big by NZ standards commercial fields, full of Ozzie and Japanese tourists, and then in Wanaka, just over the Crown Range, there is Cardrona and Treble Cone, which are a bit more low key, but popular with the tourists, and on the other side of the valley from Cardies, there is Snow Park, which is a jibber’s paradise, and just by that, th Snow Farm, for people with long beards who smell of wee and like to do XC skiing.

In the middle of the South Island, you’ve got Canterbury, which is where I live, and where there are loads of ski areas for all different tastes and abilities.

At the big end of the spectrum, there is Mt Hutt. It’s a good sized commercial field, has three lifts, including a detachable 6 seater that gets you to the top of the mountain in 6 minutes, and it gets busy. There is some awesome back country at Hutt if you go for a bit of a walk, and it’s the no hassle option for Cantabrians looking for an easy day of skiing or riding. Then there is Porter Heights which is smaller, it’s got three leg killing T-Bars, and at the top of it is Big Mama, which is the longest double black in the Southern Hemisphere, and just insane on a good powder day.

Then the good stuff starts in Canterbury, the club fields. These are the hidden gem of winter sports in NZ. With a couple of exceptions, they don’t mess around with lifts, instead they have rope-tows, which are high speed ropes and pulleys, and run off old tractor engines. You need to wear a climbing harness with a nutcracker on it to ride them, as well as glove protectors, and they will scalp you or rip your fingers off if you aren’t careful. They also keep the tourists and less confident riders well away.

The club fields are all run by ski clubs, staffed by volunteers, and they don’t generally groom anything. They have really nice lodges on the mountain, so you basically get a scary rope tow into back country heaven, a great place to have lunch, and very cheap lodge style accommodation where everybody chips in with the chores and cooking, and then blows the top off a few cold ones in the evening, in a real no BS friendly atmosphere. Anybody can use the club fields, but if you are a club member you get better prices on passes and lodges.

Here’s a map of the Canterbury fields



The other thing that’s a bit different in NZ is that none of the ski areas have gondola access. You have to drive. This means that it’s usually as scary as it can get in a car. The “roads” to the bottom lifts are usually single track, unsealed, hacked out of a mountain, with no crash barriers, and big, sometimes 500 metre, sheer drops off the side. Getting down a 10km road in a white out can sometimes take 5 or 6 hours. If you are going to ski or board on the South Island, a good four wheel drive, with decent off road tyres, and at least one set of chains is pretty much a necessity. People do drive off the side, and do get killed, so the drive up and down is something to be taken very seriously. Some of the clubbies also require a pretty decent walk from the car park, up to an hour carrying your gear at some of them. Hammering around a mountain in a big truck in deep snow with your mates getting amped is one of the best ways to start a Saturday.

On to the snow…..

Most years it kicks off with pretty dismal snow depths, and sometimes just a couple of runs under the snowmaking machines open, then July throws up a few good dumps to build the base, August and September are normally sunny and cruisey, with the promise of some good powder days thrown into the mix. 2004 followed this pattern, 2005 never really happened, and 2006 started in early June with the meanest storm for years, which dropped up to a metre of snow on the middle of the South Island. It was pretty grim for some of the people who live in the high country in Canterbusry, -16 for three weeks with no power, but a bit of a result for all the skiers and boarders

Here’s a satellite picture of the day after the weather bomb hit



Me and a few mates bunked off work for that one.

Continued....

Hang11

Unfortunately all the ski fields got their power lines taken out. So we stuck snow chains on the front and back of my four wheel drive and struck out for the nearest hill. We had to drive through a metre of snow for a couple of hours, and I managed to rip the sump guard off my truck too.

We found a hill and sessioned that for the day.

Here’s a few more pictures

This is the pub in Methven, on the Canterbury Plains



This is Mount Hutt after the storm



Me riding a hill that we hiked



The road that goes from Christchurch to Mt Hutt



Anyway, it kept snowing heaps for the rest of June, and by the time the clubbies were open, everywhere was sitting on a 2 metre base and I hadn’t been to work much for a few weeks!

I got up to Mt Cheeseman on opening day. The whole mountain had two metres of the freshest driest powder covering it from top to bottom, without any track in it. The top tow didn’t open until midday, and I was first in line after the two lefties went up it, which meant that I got a run, top to bottom in head deep powder. It was just sick, 400 metres of vertical, and when I got back to the lodge, there was just my tracks going all the way down the South Face.

Here’s a few pictures of Cheeseman

The view of the Craigieburn Range from the top tow

Hang11

This one gives a good idea of how busy it gets here!



The lodge and carpark



The view off the top



Anyway, it continued to puke snow throughout July and August, I nearly got the sack, and I went snowboarding a lot. Every time I rode was in deep powder, and I gave up counting the days. It was a lot.

Here’s some more photos

The Arrowsmith’s – helicopter access is cheap as for these – in early June, taken from the summit of Mt Hutt



Looking towards Christchurch over the Canterbury Plains, towards Banks Peninsula. That’s the South Pacific in the distance



Some more of Mt Hutt, looking a bit tracked out



Anyway, it got to the end of August and all turned to custard. The North Westerlies got up, the snow went soft, started melting, and I haven’t bothered going up again. I figure a season of powder was good, why spoil groveling. It’s unusual, Spring is normally the time for bluebird days here, but we’re in an El Nino year, so it’s all gone wrong. Yesterday was supposed to have been good, but it’s looking shite for next weekend, most of the clubbies are closed, and Hutt will be the last to shut on 23rd October. Overall it’s been an epic season though.

Can’t wait for next year!

If you want to check out some links to snow here, try www.snow.co.nz and www.chillout.co.nz

Hang11

Lastly, here’s the snow graph for Canterbury

Yorksha

Thanks for the info guys. Hopefully it will all work out.
The pictures look sweeeeeet!!! I've just got back from doin a few months in Austria where the snow was poor but towards the end a really good dumping left me with loads of powder and off piste.
My intention is to use the course in Cardrona as a springboard (albeit an expensive one) to come over to NZ and gain a qual that I can use in Europe if things don't work out. However I'm not particular about staying around the snow regions and am willing to try and stay in other areas outside so thanks for the advice on other towns etc.

Cheers!!!

ceri75

[QUOTE=Hang11;4604451]Just to get you amped - this is a little thing I did last year for a snowboarding site...


Frickin' fantastic post this has got me really hyped up, been resting on the olde laurels for far too long on artificial slopes. keep the posts a' comin'

Wiz'n'Ton

Just to add my 2p - as a chippy you will have zero problems in finding work. ESPECIALLY in Queenstown, as they are crying out for skilled tradesmen to support the current housing boom there. At least that's what all the Christchurch based construction companies who have been contracted there are telling me. If you are good at your trade, then 20 to 30 bucks an hour will be easy.

The snow looks ACE so have a great time there doing whatever it is you are gonna do!

Good luck!

Jack The Lad

What a wicked post

Hang11 get some pictures up in the picture thread dude