5 Things I learned from New Zealand Working Holiday

Papamoa Beach, New Zealand
Photo credit to John Lau

I can hardly believe that it's been a year since i ended New Zealand Working Holiday. New Zealand has been everything I wished for and more. It’s hard for me to articulate my feelings and emotions so far for this adventure. If I had to sum up my experience in one sentence. It would be, "wow, isn’t this what we live for?"

1 . Humble happiness I learned from New Zealand. 

Kiwis don't focus on status nor power. They are not in a continuous comparison battle and are not overly focused on personal achievements. I feel that this is why Kiwis are able to appreciate the simple things in life This is why New Zealand is always is the chart of the World Happiest Country. They have enough time to do things they like, be outdoor and be proud of whatever they are doing. I learned that we don't really need to be a banker or consultant to be happy. It's not about status. Work is important, but not more important than living a good, fulfilled life. I quit my white collar job (Business Development Excecutive) and worked for a wide range of blue collar jobs (Such as kiwi packer, cherry sorter, rasberry picker, painter, farmer, salmon packer, sale assistant etc). For me, I found that it is not about the tittle of your job but how much you like what you are doing. I have never been so happier  while working with a bunch of backpackers and locals.

We met in Kiwi packhouse located at Te Puke (North Island). 3 months later, we made an effort to gather in a homestay located at Alexandra (South Island). I still remembered the moment when we are having light beer, music and talking about the big plan - 3 years later from today, we will meet each other in Canada, buy and live in a bus together, some of you guys will sell pizza and I am going to teach Chinese to earn a living and continue our wanderlust together. (Update: I can still feel the simple happiness while writing this post, make me realize how precious the moment when we talked about dreams.)

One of the things I enjoyed doing was getting to know good people and I enjoy listen to their life experience. They inspired me alot. So glad that we are still sharing new moments with each other even until today.

Farewell dinner with Kiwi in Alexandra, New Zealand. They just can't get enough of  'coke chicken' prepared by John. Haha!

2. Nature is amazing! 

Almost every backpacker I've met there is crazy about the nature there. After spending 9 months there, I know why people can't get enough of New Zealand's landscape. There is no doubt that New Zealand is a nature paradise. Hiking trails and mountain bike tracks are almost everywhere, and just about every 5km, I was surprised there will be a sign to notify people to stop and admire the scenery. Having the  opportunity to stop and appreciate something like a clear milky way, starry night, meteor rain can make me feel how tiny I am. There comes a realisation - we are always living in a busy and fast-paced urban jungle where we do not even know what’s happening around, because we never have a chance to even slow down. Fact is, when you got a chance to witness a clear Milky Way, starry sky or meteor rain, you’ll realise how insignificant you and your so called problems are, or even how tiny the existence of the Earth is in this universe. So did I. 

Some of my favourite spots in New Zealand

- Wharariki Beach

- Wanaka Tree

- Hokitika George

- Mount Cook

3. Don't lose curiosity.

This is very important because we keep moving forward, opening new doors and doing new things. Curiosity keep leading us down to new paths. I found that when I am curious, I will find lots of interesting things to do.

Camp life

We are always curious and want to travel in a more flexible way. Hence, we bought a tent which can fit 3 persons and started our on and off camp life from North Island to South Island.

Photo taken at one of the holiday parks in Hamilton.

Sea urchin picking

Got to know about sea urchin picking from the local at our workplace. During one of the weekend, we drove to New Dick's Beach (What a strange name *—*) at 4am in the morning for sunrise and  to search for sea urchin. Luck is with us! We managed to get some fresh mussels and sea urchins with some tips from the folks who live by the beach there. Or else we might go home empty handed. Haha! 

Catching sunset, starry night and sunrise  on Roys Peak. 

Happened to come across a stunning photo from the Internet (Roys Peak). Decided to try staying one night on the mountain for the breathtaking scenery. Have a really tight schedule (Cherry end season party, farewell dinner, gotta pack and move to other town within 2 days)  but still tried our best to fit it into our plan. We don’t want to miss it and regret for life! It’s a 3-4 hours hike (1 way), we carried more than 10kg backpack per person including tent, sleeping bag, camera equipment, food, drinks, speaker, cloth, etc. We made the decision not to bring our drone which made me regret until today but we really couldn’t carry anymore. We were able to reach the top before sunset, the scenery was lovely!

My feeling at the top - I miss my family because it was day two of Chinese New Year  2017 and I was supposed to spend time with them. Also, it was kind of my lowest point of my life as I just broke up with my ex 1 week ago. Thanks to my travelmates (John & Poo Wen) for the support and hugs.

4. Language is not a communication barrier.

At the very beginning, I was worried about communication barrier. Imagine you are working together with people from all around the world and everyone is having conversation with their friends in their own language. What I heard was English, Cantonese, Mandarine, French, German, Spanish, Hindu, Vietnamese, Filipino, Portuguese, Korean, Japanese, Malay etc. Can you feel the complexity of the conversation? In addition, New Zealand slang can be quite hard to understand especially on top of their fast and harsh sounding accent. Surprisingly, I found it was pretty interesting after interacting with them for a few days. We started to learn other languages beginning with some simple number and swear words (Haha!). Another good way of interaction was through music! Each of us was given a chance to play some of our favorite music while working in the packhouse and I got to know a lot of cool music and having so much fun. We danced, we sang together, making the work environment stress-free and full with positive energy. Well, I guess language shouldn't become communication barrier, it depends on how strong you want to connect with other.

5. Working holiday is not just a bed of roses.

It’s not that I have regretted giving this lifestyle a try, I just want people who are going to have their working holiday to know that this path is not all smiles and rainbows. 

Having proper expectation is important. Travel adventures always doesn’t go as what I've planned. During the whole journey, I was trying my best to find the balance between earning money and travelling. When we are not taking pretty pictures, we were probably doing some laborious hard work or squeezing our brain juice to plan for the next trip as well as budget planning for daily expenses. 

Behind those fairy tale photos we took in New Zealand, there were many little road bumps that happened along the way. One of the incidents was that our car broke down and delayed our trip for days. We have no choice but to stay in Christchurch to fix the car. Another incident was a car accident during road trip and insurance company refused to pay for the loss. We didn’t give up and eventually found evidence and headquarter approved our claim. Also, we were unable to find a home-stay in Alexandra due to the high demand during cherry harvest season, we set up our tent in a local's garden and lived for a month with bare necessities. I found that all the road-bumps and heartaches are actually magical little fairies setting a bigger plan in motion and made me a stronger person.

The more I push myself to really live and really experience things and step outside of my comfort zone, the more the songs are allowed to flow.

New Zealand - magnificent, uncrowded, green and peaceful. Grateful to have working holiday experience in this spectacular country. It’s definitely a once in a lifetime experience.