Our journey through New Zealand has seen us living, working and travelling around the glorious and scenic South Island.
We have utilised the idea of slow travel, as we have spent a year and a half working our way around in various jobs.
November 2022
Landing In Christchurch
In November 2022, we flew into Christchurch. We left the UK 5 weeks before this, and spent three weeks in Abu Dhabi and two weeks in Thailand before starting our New Zealand chapter.
We spent two months exploring Christchurch and the local area- places like Hanmer Springs, Kaikoura, and Akaroa.
After spending our first Christmas in the sun, we landed ourselves some live-in jobs in the Marlborough Sounds at a four-star luxury accommodation lodge called Furneaux Lodge.
READ MORE: Everything You Need To Know About Live-In Jobs in New Zealand
January-April 2023
Furneaux Lodge
We spent three and a half months working at Furneaux Lodge, between January and April 2023, until the season started to slow down.
This place was amazing. It was our first taste of living and working in another country, surrounded by natural beauty and other backpackers and cool people.
We had a lot of fun with our fellow colleagues and friends, spending time off together to paddle board, swim, and hike the Queen Charlotte Track in peak summer.
It was blissful.
We worked lots here, usually 40–50-hour weeks. The upside of this is that we saved so much money. It was our first taste of the live in job life and combined with the location- there was nothing to really spend out money on!
Our time at Furneaux Lodge changed our outlook for the rest of our Working Holiday Visa time in New Zealand. Upon reflection, it is also a key factor as to why we stayed in New Zealand longer than originally planned.
To read more about our time at Furneaux Lodge, click here.
April- May 2023
Road Trips Around the South Island
Once we left Furneaux Lodge, we did some travel around the South Island in the form of a few road trips, and Jess’s parents even came to visit us which was awesome! We planned a 10-day trip around the South Island for them and saw so much.
The first road trip (just Jess and Ben) took us to the most southerly point of the South Island, Slope Point which is located near Invercargill. We made a few stops on this trip, such as:
- The Catlins
- Oamaru
- Dunedin
Our second road trip in this period of time was much grander, as we had Jess’s parents visiting us. We did some big boy planning to try fit loads of cool stuff into the short time they were here.
We embarked on a 10 day road trip that was packed with hiking and sightseeing.
We started in Christchurch, and then visited:
- Lake Tekapo
- Mount Cook National Village
- Queenstown
- Wanaka
- Fox Glacier
- Franz Josef
We have already written about some of the places that we visited, check them out below.
June 2023
Ducking & Diving in Christchurch
After spending most of the money that we had saved at Furneaux Lodge, the time was upon us to start looking for work again as we had no money. We did some hospitality temping work with an agency called Madison Recruitment, where we worked in places such as Te Pae Convention Centre and The Orange Theory Stadium (we got to work all the Crusaders home Rugby Matches in 2023 which was cool).
This was great fun, but the inconsistent nature of temping work was not financially viable in the long run.
Thankfully, Ben has family in Christchurch so we stayed with them while we sorted ourselves out so there was slightly less pressure.
And then we got a call from the Venue Manager at a new brew pub in Christchurch called The Church…
A huge thank you to our Kiwi Krew for supporting us when needed throughout our journey!
July- November 2023
The Church Brew Pub
The Church Brew Pub was such an epic place to work, and one of our favourite chapters in our travelling journey.
We helped open an insane venue that is part of an iconic set of hospitality venues in Christchurch- names such as Austin Club and OGB are linked with The Church and they are easily some of the best bars in Christchurch.
We made some amazing friends here and have some beautiful memories. We saw some great local bands play here and fell in love with the craft beer brand Emerson’s.
We worked at The Church as Duty Managers (after obtaining the relevant qualifications and certificates) for just over four months.
However, despite loving the venue and the people we worked with immensely, we decided that ultimately, we weren’t travelling enough.
Unless you come to a country with money to spare, using the working holiday visa to travel will always present the issue of travel vs money. You need work to get money, but you’re here to travel.
To help us decide, we drew an imaginary triangle with each corner representing the following aspect: travel, money, and career growth. While there was opportunity for career growth here, living in the city was expensive (even with help from Ben’s family) and travelling New Zealand was almost non-existent, apart from a few small trips.
Our work saw us starting at 4pm and finishing between 1-3am most days. Sleeping all day and working all night was not why we came to New Zealand.
We wanted to hit two birds with one stone and still progress our careers while travelling. Taking on the fairly big management role that was on offer would have been great, but not at the cost of travelling and wasting the precious time of the Working Holiday Visa.
So after lengthy discussions, we quit The Church in November 2023.
If you are in Christchurch, we 100% recommend visiting The Church for a beer and a wood fired pizza. We always pop in when we visit Christchurch.
December '23- January 2024
Moving to Fox Glacier, The West Coast
The next chapter of our journey around New Zealand took us to the rugged and wild West Coast, namely Fox Glacier Township, starting in December 2023.
We had secured jobs at a saloon bar and pub called The Cook Saddle as Duty Managers, living just next door to the pub.
Upon meeting the owner-manager, it became clear that the pub needed a bit of a makeover internally, with a shake up on social media, the wine lists and the operating organisation… This all sounded great to us, a project that we could put our enthusiastic, eager and willing minds towards.
However…
As glad as we are that we got out of the city and went somewhere more ‘travelly’, it couldn’t have been more of a contrast to Christchurch!!
As slightly progressive and forward-thinking people (we think), we certainly struggled adjusting to the attitudes and the way of life over there.
Touristing through the West Coast? Absolutely go for it- it’s stunning and completely different to the rest of the South Island. Living and working there? It wasn’t for us.
Needless to say, we didn’t last long and handed our notice in on New Years Day 2024 after just over three weeks.
We saw pretty much everything that the small town of Fox Glacier had to offer, all while keeping an eye out for other jobs.
We did also meet some great people (other travellers) so it wasn’t a complete mistake.
To read more about our time living in Fox Glacier, click here to read the article.
January- March 2024
Lake Ōhau Lodge
Lake Ōhau Lodge is stunning. On the border between North Otago and South Canterbury, we lived in the lake side lodge there which had gorgeous views of the peak of Mount Cook and Lake Ōhau.
To get there, you have to drive along a 17km long road from State Highway 8 through bare terrain with views of mountains, and around the edge of the lake to get to the lodge.
It really was a spectacular location.
Here we learnt a new service style to add to our experience and skill set in the industry: table d’hôte. A (sometimes intense) style where everyone was served food of the chefs choice at the same time. (Even if we had 100+ guests!)
We managed to do a few cool things here:
- Paddle board on the ice cold glacial lake, Lake Ōhau
- Hike the Ben Ōhau and Greta Stream Trail
- Hiked Sealy Tarns at Mount Cook Village
- Visit Wanaka for a few days
- Trekked through the Temple Valley
The sunrises and sunsets here were truly magnificent.
We were always in complete awe when the sky looked like it was on fire, or when the top of Aoraki Mt Cook turned red or even just staring up at the night sky.
We were employed as Duty Managers here too, however Ben was more of a Duty Manager than Jess for various, behind the scenes reasons that were out of our control.
Three months living and working here was enough as we felt like we had more to offer a business and weren’t getting the opportunity and the area itself was quite isolated- in a completely different way to Furneaux Lodge.
If you are looking for winter work on the South Island of New Zealand, Lake Ōhau Lodge is a great option as it has its ski fields, so you get lots of work (in a season where work can be hard to find) and the benefit of a free ski pass to Lake Ōhau Snowfields and some of the other great ski fields in the area such as Treble Cone and Cardrona.
The freedom we have had on the Working Holiday Visa is great, we have been able to come and go as we please, working and travelling when we like. We recommend anyone to do it if they can!
April- Current
The Vulcan Hotel, Saint Bathans
This next chapter was possibly the most spontaneous one!
We left Lake Ōhau Lodge at the end of March 2024 for a place called The Vulcan Hotel in a tiny town called Saint Bathans, with the general plan that we’d work for another two months and then with the money we’d saved we’d then leave and travel the North Island with the remaining few months of our Working Holiday Visa.
Oh how things change.
We absolutely fell in love with Saint Bathans, The Vulcan Hotel, and the people in the local community and of course the fun we have with those who we live and work with… PHILLIIIIIIP!
Looking at Saint Bathans on the map and looking at photos of the Vulcan, we didn’t expect much. With a population of 7, you can’t blame us.
However, we were welcomed to our new home by our new bosses and the local community with arms wide open and immediately felt settled.
But obviously, first impressions might not always be accurate, right?
Wrong, we still feel like that: extremely welcome.
How incredible are some of these photos that we’ve taken of Saint Bathans?! We are so grateful to live here.
And, using the imaginary triangle from before, we felt like we were hitting all three aspects here, as well as being happy.
Since being here for two months so far, we have done so much- both in a travel sense and in a professional sense!
From a traveller’s point of view, we have done:
- Cycled the Lake Dunstan Trail
- Visited Bannockburn vineyards for some world class wine tasting
- Experienced the Speights and Emerson’s Brewery Tour in Dunedin
Professionally, we feel like we’ve achieved a lot too!
- Boosted The Vulcan Hotel’s Facebook / social media engagement
- Helped plan and host a Seafood Night, which was one of the first events like that held at The Vulcan Hotel in many years
- Generally working closely with the team and the owners to help improve this historical, iconic pub
As people who like people and working in hospitality, this is an ideal job for us with great opportunities, both at work and outside of work.
To make it even better we get the luxury of having our own little kitten to look after! Meet Sir Vulcan Tom Cat, or Kit Kat as Jess calls him.
We are grateful to Wayne and Andrea for employing us and for this to be a chapter of our New Zealand adventure.
We are planning on spending longer here in Saint Bathans, whether we extend our Working Holiday Visa again is in discussion (and we are leaning towards staying).
And that’s it for now!
We are up to date as we write this in June 2024, sat outside The Vulcan Hotel on a sunny winter’s afternoon.
We will update this article as and when it is necessary… Follow our Instagram for updates if you’d like to stay up to date with our journey @jessandbentravel
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