I'm going to NZ for the Summer!!!

[skea 457]

Having worked in ski resorts before should help, depending on what sort of job you want. But because whatever area you get into you will end up in a pretty small team, it is as much about compatible personalities as experience. Queenstown and Wanaka would offer the best chances of getting a job, just because they have the most of those sort of jobs. Keep an eye on the resort web sites if you want to work there, but there are jobs in town that will not be advertised too. But the difficult thing is that it is not easy to get time off to get out of the area and see the club fields.

The guy who died was heading down on the walking track, his friends alerted police when he was a couple of hours overdue. His body was found at the bottom of a big waterfall. He would have had to have gone a long way off the clearly marked walking track to end up where he was.

cj001f - nice photo of yours of Temple tow in the lift stoke thread.

Both my previous photos were taken from the same spot in the upper Cassidy bowl. The second one has upper Bills Basin in the foreground and Mt Phipps is the mountain in the centre of the picture in the background.

The picture below is looking down on Downhill Basin from the top of Elevator Chute the weekend before the last pictures. Elevator chute is the main hiking access to Bills Basin.

[skiHOG]

Skea, may I ask what you do in NZ? Have any early job hookups? Is finding a place to live going to be a bitch? I'm also thinking about buying a crapper car, so I can go wherever and whenever I want.

[bigtrubs]

how is the mountain biking down there? is it a good idea to bring one along or just buy another one there?

[Alyeska_Skibum]

Im looking into heading down there for a few weeks in August. It was a toss up between there or Argentina.

On a side note, anybody have any experience with these guys www.dvanceonline.com

[skea 457]

I currently do production control work for a Christchurch manufacturer making industrial machinery. Sorry, I don’t have any hookups for jobs (unless you can weld or are a fitter/turner). But in my younger days I worked two seasons in the rental department at Porter Heights ski area, a season working part time at a now defunct ski shop in Christchurch and a season working for a ski shop in Winter Park.

If I was visiting NZ I think I would buy an old subie wagon, head to Queenstown or Wanaka for a resort job there at the start of the season, but quit mid-August and spend the spring on a road trip around the club fields and sleep in the car if I have to. If you do the road trip in early to mid spring it shouldn’t be as cold, and there is a really great pass (Chill pass) which covers 7 ski areas which come in 7 or 10 days (non-consecutive) or as a seasons pass. The 10 day pass was NZ$280 last year (US$20/day) and you can buy or upgrade them at any stage during the season.

Accommodation can be a pain to find in the resorts, you just have to get in early or hope you get lucky. Both Queenstown and Wanaka are booming at the moment, and every year you hear there is not enough cheap accommodation for the seasonal workers so some people do miss out.

I am just starting to get into mountain biking myself but I believe there is quite a lot near christchurch in the Port Hills and also in the mountains near the ski fields. Check out a site like www.pennysportcycles.co.nz/ if you want to compare range and prices.

[fineline]

I'm also trying to get down to NZ this summer... are there any cheap hostel-type places around? That way I could go for a month or so and not have to work, but I would love to spend the summer there and find a job and somewhere to live... Im canadian so I can supposedly get a work visa really easily. I just have to ski this summer, if anyone has done something similar, how did you do it? any info would be greatly appreciated...

[snowfire]

Hostels are very cheap in NZ. Buy a Lonely Planet-NZ guidebook, there are tons of great hostel listings in there. Another option, what I did was to buy a cheap car- Holden Commodore '88 station wagon, bought a single bed mattress to stick in the back, and lived in the parking lots of the club fields. Bring a good sleeping bag, and you'll stay nice and toasty. Alternate that with some hostel nights if it's really cold or you want to shower, and you should be pretty set. I know some of the hostels also do long-term stays- weeks to months- so you could check that out. I know a couple people who did that and then did some hostel cleaning to pay for the cost of board. There are lots of hostels to be found in the towns, and if you want to be really close to the club fields and not have to drive, some of them are kinda in the middle of nowhere, so sleeping in the car is the best option for those nights. Just make sure you get a good set of tire chains AND jumper cables.

edit: I worked under the table for awhile while I was there, riding racehorses. If you can get a work visa, you could work for awhile at a temp job if you run low on funds, then travel around in between. Or, like I mentioned before, do a long-term board at a hostel and work cleaning or desk there.

[GFP]

Just make sure you get a good set of tire chains AND jumper cables.

^^^^^^^^^^^^
lessons learned from experience. While you're on the subject, why not tell him to get a good radar detector as well

[snowfire]

^^^^^^^^^^^^
lessons learned from experience. While you're on the subject, why not tell him to get a good radar detector as well

d'oh. Yeah, that might be a good idea too.

[fineline]

thanks so much for the suggestions, the hostells sound great, same with buying a car... how did you get the car and were you able to sell it when you were coming back home? I could be down there anywhere from a month to three, depending on finances... plus I am 18, would I be able to get a car and insurance? Ive been working my butt off to get the cash to do this this summer, but its going to have to be cheap. I might need some way of getting money down there... its just going to be harder considering im a girl with only restaurant experience. Im going to make this work though... somehow

[biggins]

At Mt. Cheeseman (the second or third club along Arthurs Pass out of Christchurch) there's a hostel actually on the access road (about 3miles from the lifts). You might hook up a longer stay there. You'd be not too far from Craigieburn, Olympus, and a little further Temple Basin. If you're looking for work/ski life- Methven is a pretty passed over town (passed over for Queenstown and Wanaka for obvious reasons) with some work, really nice people (as anywhere in NZ), and a hundred or more rides a day to Mt. Hutt and back (again, really nice people).

If you have the funds/means to go the car route that Commodore idea would be sweet. The valleys (anywhere not right at lift level) are a good deal warmer all day, so sleeping in a car is pretty realistic. Also you'll be psyched to have mobility as all fields on the S. Island are easily driveable distances from each other.

Spend the $150nz on good/easy to put on chains as soon as you get the car. Wear shitty clothes the first time you think you'll have to put 'em on.

So jealous of all you sum. nz travelers. Have fun.

[Stoysluttie1]

Need a photo sherpa for the summer?

[cj001f]

edit: I worked under the table for awhile while I was there, riding racehorses. If you can get a work visa, you could work for awhile at a temp job if you run low on funds, then travel around in between. Or, like I mentioned before, do a long-term board at a hostel and work cleaning or desk there.

A working holiday visa (application free for US citizens) is exactly what you would want. Work no more than 8 or so weeks at any one job.

Hostels aren´t so cheap - campings free. But you meet much more interesting people in hostels.

[TBone]

I spent a semester abroad at Otago U last year and had the time of my life. Two of my best ski days of all time were at Craigieburn and Treble Cone, both of which I hit after the mountains had been closed for several days due to inclement (snowing like balls) weather on the summits.

If you plan on skiing in Arthur's pass (Craigieburn, Temple Basin, Broken River, etc.) there's a sweet little DOC hut just off the road between Craigieburn and Temple basin on the Cass Lagoon Saddle track. Check it out, it could be very well worth it... and bring a warm sleeping bag and some dirty magazines, and lots of booze, and cards, and a girl if you have one, in which case you can leave the dirty magazines behind.

Damn, I could talk about NZ forever. Have a helluva trip!

[Big Blue]

A working holiday visa (application free for US citizens) is exactly what you would want.

Where do you apply? Online?

[cj001f]

Where do you apply? Online?

Here´s a tip. Use the internet, go visit the New Zealand immigration website.

[snowfire]

thanks so much for the suggestions, the hostells sound great, same with buying a car... how did you get the car and were you able to sell it when you were coming back home? I could be down there anywhere from a month to three, depending on finances... plus I am 18, would I be able to get a car and insurance? Ive been working my butt off to get the cash to do this this summer, but its going to have to be cheap. I might need some way of getting money down there... its just going to be harder considering im a girl with only restaurant experience. Im going to make this work though... somehow

I'm a girl too, and I was 20 when I was down there, and I was by myself as well. 18 down there is like our 21, so you shouldn't have a problem.

You can get short-term car insurance, I believe it's 3 months... there was a website but that was almost 3 years ago so I don't have it anymore. But you can find out when you get down there. Get a copy of BSE- buy, sell, and exchange- and look for a car in there, best to look for one owned by a family or an older person (aka not one beat up by teenage drivers) and MAKE SURE it says "WOF"- warrant of fitness- basically means it won't blow up if you try to drive it. It's illegal to drive a car in NZ without one. Find out when the WOF expires, if it expires when you have the car yo'ull have to get a new one and that can be pricey.

I was able to sell it before I came back. I bought the car for an equivalent of $500 USD and sold it for $900 USD. If you can, advertise it on hostel bulletin boards and at university boards. College kids are always looking for cheap cars.

I actually sold the car when ski season was over, about a month or so before I came back to the States, and hitchhiked up the S. Island and across the N. Island making my way to Auckland. You can get around pretty easily without a car, just make sure you're prepared to sleep in a ditch if you don't see anyone- which can happen especially in the S. Island. Take a sleeping bag and one of those aluminum emergency blankets and you'll be fine. There are no big animals there that can eat you. The car is great for ski season though because you can go wherever you want, follow the snow and it's a mobile bedroom. I would definitely recommend it.

Oh yeah, and if you get 3 speeding tickets they'll send you a letter saying they'll take away your license if you get another. Carry your passport with you if you want to go to pubs, most places in NZ don't accept American drivers licenses (especially if it's from california).

what else? I, like others, could talk about NZ for hours. Days, even. I loved that place.

[skiHOG]

Good to see some other maggots heading down to NZ. I filled out my working holiday application back at the beginning of February, sent it in and 7 days later my passport was returned with my working holiday visa stamp in it. My flight leaves L.A. on May 31. From what I hear that's kinda late to be getting down there for the ski season to find suitable housing and jobs. I have filled out applicaitons to several of the ski mountains but have not gotten any responses yet. I even emailed some of the people that run the club fields to see if they need help but never heard anything back after I sent them my resume and a cover letter. Not really sure what I'm going to be doing yet, all I know is that I'm going, and my skis are going with me. After ski season I plan to move to Christchurch, rent a flat or even a house if I can find enough people and get a job and just hang out and try to mesh into society as much as possible. I'll definately be hitting up Abel Tasman park, Fiordland and Milford Sound for some tramping. Also hoping to get a chance to summit Mount Tasman or Mt. Aspiring, Cook is out of the question for me.