Yes, we left the UK in October 2022 with a one-way ticket and yes, we didn’t really have much of a plan. But we certainly didn’t expect to extend our Working Holiday Visas and stay in New Zealand for two years… We only expected to be in this epic country for six or seven months.
So, what changed?
In this article, we discuss crucial parts of our journey that led us to staying in New Zealand longer than anticipated, plus the key factors that ultimately led to us extending our stay.
Our journey started in October 2022, and we left the UK with the goal of chasing the sun- neither of us are big fans of the depressing UK winter and we both love sunshine. So, heading to the Southern Hemisphere at that time of year made sense.
With the summer months and warmer weather in New Zealand coming to an end (and a bunch of family birthdays on Ben’s side happening), April seemed like a good time to roughly plan to head back to the UK.
Even as we write this, only spending six months in New Zealand seems ridiculous.
We arrived in New Zealand in November 2022, landing in Christchurch airport.
We settled in and embarked on a bit of travel around the east coast, we then spent our first Christmas together in the sun (which was odd, but pretty cool) and then when our money was starting to dwindle, we headed up to the top of the South Island to work at Furneaux Lodge.
Furneaux Lodge is a luxury lodge located in the Marlborough Sounds at the very top of the South Island. The Lodge is extremely remote; only accessible by an hour long boat ride or by foot if you’re heading along the Queen Charlotte Track.
However, what this remoteness meant was that we had very little to spend our money on (apart from a few beers from the restaurant and the occasional Fresh Choice order). Consequently we managed to save a huge proportion of our wages in each paycheck.
In total, together we saved $14,000 (NZD) over a three-month period.
Aside from showing off at how great we were at saving money here, the point is that by the time April rolled around and we left Furneaux Lodge, we had a choice to make on how to use that money:
Fly back to the UK or travel New Zealand?
Needless to say, we stayed. But there were a few reasons behind the choice.
Reasons We Stayed in New Zealand
1. The Working Holiday Visa
You can only get the Working Holiday Visa for each country once in your lifetime. When it expires, you cannot reuse it. When we realised this, there was no way we were going to just leave New Zealand while we still had such a long time left on our visas.
2. More Exploration to be Done
On our drive up to Furneaux Lodge, we did a mini road trip from Christchurch. We left early in the morning and drove through Arthur’s Pass to The West Coast, then up to Punakaiki to see Pancake Rocks and then back across to Blenheim, where we spent the night before travelling to Picton to get our boat.
It was a long drive but we managed to see a lot just from the car. Driving through Arthurs pass we looked at each other and Ben said “I bet this looks cool in the snow”. So the seed was sown for us wanting to stay in New Zealand before we even started our Furneaux Lodge stint.
3. Feeling Inspired by others
Having just spent three months living and working with other travellers, we had had plenty of opportunity to discuss travelling New Zealand and take on board other people’s suggestions.
There was no way we wanted to just leave Furneaux Lodge and head back to Christchurch to fly home!
We had a great long list of places to visit and fantastic suggestions from other travellers. We were so inspired to be in New Zealand and repeat our working holiday experience at other places.
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4. Our Financial Situation
$14,000 seems like a lot of money to have sat in the bank, but once you factor in around $6,000 for two one-way flights back to the UK and then easily another $6000 on miscellaneous spending until we found our feet again with jobs and a place to live, the money is pretty much gone and we’ve barely seen New Zealand. That money we spent time saving gets eaten up really quickly and we don’t have much to show for it except the fact we spent some time working in another country.
Instead, we left Furneaux and spent $6,000 on two months of travel, put $6,000 in a 2-year savings lock box (as we are financially sensible behind the scenes), $1,000 on a luxury investment and the other $1,000 went on miscellaneous crap (including winter clothes that we didn’t think we’d need when we left the UK).
By staying, we maximised what we did with not only our cash but our working holiday visa.
The flights will cost the same whether you stay for two weeks or two years.
Travel For Yourself, Not Others
We felt guilty about extending our time here, as when we said goodbye to everyone in the UK, we had no idea how long we’d actually be away for.
However, you must make these decisions for yourselves and not for other people. If we were trying to please everyone back at home, we wouldn’t have seen or done half as much as we have by staying.
Overall, we felt like we made the best decision for us by staying in New Zealand a bit longer than expected. Since Furneaux Lodge, we have had so many amazing life experiences, seen so much of the South Island, and we’ve landed some really great jobs.
To read a full breakdown of our two years in New Zealand, check out this article where we provide an overview of all of the jobs and the way our journey has unfolded between November 2022 and now (June 2024 at the point when this is written).
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Safe travels,
Jess & Ben
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