As the winter gradually arrived in New Zealand (NZ) and the country's tourism became largely restricted to the skiing destinations, the availability of full-time jobs elsewhere in the country also began to dry up. Unfortunately, having previously broken my neck quite severely, I was unable to exploit the skiing resorts for work and had begun to look for employment in new areas, further north and away from Canterbury and the Southland. I selected the city of Nelson as a good location to spend the winter months as I hoped that settling in a city would provide more working options than that of a small town while also giving me a new region to explore. I also had developed ambitions to continue my travels into South East Asia (SEA) after my 12 month working-holiday visa expired in NZ and in order to do this I would need to accrue sufficient funds to sustain me. My task was therefore to find somewhere to stay over the winter and to earn enough money to continue travelling.
After initial inquiries I was successful in securing work woofing (working part time for
accommodation) at The Prince Albert Bar & Backpackers Hostel. I hoped to use this as a base to keep my outgoing costs down while I searched for further paid employment in the city. Unfortunately, the first casualty is always the plan, and the availability of full-time employment even here in a city was hard to find over the winter months as many businesses had closed until the tourist season resumed.
I finally overcome this difficulty by networking with other backpackers in the hostel and some of the locals at the bar and was able to gain midweek part-time employment at the popular and newly opened restaurant, Burger Culture. Whilst this served to bring some money in, I was very conscious that it would not be enough to SEA afterwards. I therefore continued to network and explore options until I was able to gain work with a local builder labouring in my time off from the restaurant and the hostel. A couple of weeks later I was then able to pick up a further part time 'front of house' hospitality role at another restaurant on the weekends when I was not working at Burger Culture.
I was able to balance my time and energy between these 4 jobs during the winter months and saved enough money in this time to continue my exploration of NZ's North Island in the Spring without having to seek any further paid work and just a little work woofing. Upon reaching the end of my visa in December, I still had sufficient savings to fly to Vietnam for a month before spending a few weeks exploring Cambodia and finally Thailand; here I was able to spend my remaining money achieving my PADI Open Water and Advanced Open Water certificates before flying home.
Whilst I enjoyed working each of the four jobs individually, my endurance during this time was particularly tested while my organisation and planning needed to be of the highest quality. Having grown up in a military family, I had always been good at keeping on top of my personal admin which was an essential ability during this period. As well as gaining extensive experience in a wide range of sectors, labouring for the builder in particular taught me the benefit, and ensuing satisfaction, of being able to see your results at the end of a day.
I also had the added bonus of getting the opportunity to hold the prestigious Sanzaar Super Rugby trophy when catering for a local rugby match in the Mitre 10 Cup!
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