New Zealand noob. ..... 5 month working vacation

[showbiz00ditc]

Yo whats up doods,

K so I graduate college in like 2 weeks and I'm gonna head out to New Zealand May 5th with a friend. I'm gonna be out there for 5 months on the south island to snowboard and work and chill and party. We're either going to live in Queenstown or Wanaka we're not sure yet and were not going to have a place to live when we first get out there so were gonna probably hostel for a bit. We also have a womans house to live in for 3 weeks at the end of may while she goes to Japan.

So what I'm asking of superfuture...

If you're from or have been to NZ before or know anything about it please school me on it. Anything I should check out, some activity I have to try, good food to try, things to stay away from, any shopping, any nuggets of knowledge at all will help me out.

Thanks in advance

[showbiz00ditc]

nothing?

i know theres some sufu'ers from NZ up in here.

and some of ya'll had to have been there before.

[Cue]

weeeeell,

fire more detailed questions and I'll try to answer.

Good food to try:

NZ seafood is awesome - and meat pies for breakfast before going up the mountains are a must. Remember: Steak and Cheese is the king of pies.

Um, basically the whole place is really chill, people are friendly, and you'll have mad fun just going with the flow.

Queenstown/ Wanaka are both great places to base yourself in winter, and the South Island is more visually stunning than the north - but, that said, there are still some really cool places in the North Island - Bay of Islands is nice for a few days.

Rotorua has bubbling mud pools that are really cool.

Hot water beach in teh coromandel has natural hot water that bubbles up through the sand and you can make your own spa pools on the beach.

There's whale watching trips outta Kaikoura that are meant to be good.

Any more q's just list em and I am sure TG, Ande and I will have a go at answering.

Oh - and Ande is in Christchurch - go and get some jeans made

[dedecaca]

Well, you know where you want to base yourself, which is good. The South Island is beautiful and you have enough time to see more than just Queenstown and Wanaka. A lot of people come to Queenstown/Wanaka to have a working holiday spent on snow sports and the easiest job to get will probably be at any number of lake-side cafés and restaurants.

Are you going to the North Island?

[showbiz00ditc]

were leaving that option up in the air. We're thinking of buying a backpackers car... we heard you can get them anywhere between 500-1000 so were gonna try and pick one of those up. We were looking at road tripping around so we may make our way up to the north island.

Also, isnt Haptronic from NZ?

[Cue]

sheeeet - forgot about Hap - te he he

try trademe.co.nz for cars (or at least to get a feel for prices)

def go on a road trip - dunno if you surf, but the north island has some pretty good spots - check surf2surf.co.nz

[mnkey]

I can definitely recommend the Bay of Islands (up far north). It is a very beautiful spot, although will be getting slightly colder now as we are heading into winter. If you do end up going there It's a good idea to stay right by the water.

I haven't really been to the South Island aside from when I was young, but Queenstown is definitely a very beautiful, and popular area.

[dedecaca]

Yeah, Haptronic's from Auckland, I think.

As Cue said, the surf in the North Island is wicked so don't give it a miss if you like that sort of thing. The Bay of Islands is serene but ultimately a little boring.

[deadache]

I'm going to be in NZ for a week starting on wednesday. Arriving in Auckland then slowly working our way to Wellington.

Any good shops/clubs/restaurants/things to see?

[chantheman]

what did you do end up doing in auckland?

im going to australia next month and considering adding a few days in NZ to the trip since im so close. id probably be flying into auckland and then backpacking it around there.

[showbiz00ditc]

just landed in auckland and flew down to queenstown 2 hours later.

I would highly recommend queenstown. They have an airport so you may be able to fly right in from australia.

Its the extreme capital of the world and its snowboard season there right now so theres heaps of people in town.