When Big Cat was 19 years old, when she was chasing stars, she met a girl friend, who told her that she was about to go to New Zealand on a working holiday visa, and shared the whole process with her. At that time, the big cat thought that he was still studying, and at that time, such a visa was still a small niche, so he did not plan to participate.
In 2022, after getting fed up with the boring work in China all year round, Big Cat grabbed an early bird spot from an agency and decided to go abroad for a new life experience.
Contrary to popular belief, this kind of life experience is not a tourist vacation, but working as a laborer on a farm or a waiter in a restaurant or hotel.
Big Cat's first job in New Zealand was strawberry picking. This job greatly tested the limit of her patience, she told Nanfeng Window: "Super invincible and tired, I have never suffered so much in my life." ”
Big cat tows trailer to pick strawberries / Interviewee heart
Nowadays, there are more and more young people who give up seemingly decent white-collar jobs in China to work as coolies in New Zealand to experience life.
The 2024 New Zealand Working Holiday Visa (WHV) quota opens for Chinese mainland on July 2. However, just after the New Year, the places have long been sold out.
As early as 8 o'clock in the evening at the end of January this year, an intermediary had just released a place, although the intermediary fee of 15999 had risen a lot compared with last year, but it was quickly sold out. As work visas become more and more popular, agency fees are skyrocketing. Seven or eight years ago, it was only a few hundred yuan, and the price of the same intermediary came to 7999 two years ago, and now it has doubled.
What is life like for a group of young people who are gearing up to start a new life in an unfamiliar country in the southern hemisphere?
Publicity for the vacation visa rush service released by an intermediary / Photo provided by the interviewee
Days in New Zealand
Before going to New Zealand, the big cat didn't tell her friends and family around her until she landed for a long time, and her circle of friends had been abroad, and relatives and friends knew that she was not going to travel, but to work abroad.
In New Zealand, there are a number of restrictions on finding a job on a WHV visa, such as not being able to work for the same employer for more than six months. Therefore, the group with this visa can often only apply for some temporary jobs, such as farm seasonal workers, picking vegetables and fruits, restaurant waiters, etc.
At first, Big Cat posted a lot of resumes on the Internet, and also tried to go into different stores and ask the clerk if there were any vacant positions, and half a month later, she found a job in Strawberry Farm in New Zealand.
This type of work can be called the most tiring type of WHV. Strawberry picking is not a long day, only four or five hours a day, but the intensity is very high. Strawberries grow on the ground and need to be bent over to pick them all the time, and the environment of the farm is very pristine, and when it rains, the farmland becomes sparse and it becomes difficult to walk. Once, when he came across a mud puddle, the big cat thought he could step on it, but the mud puddle was so deep that the rain boots fell into it and couldn't pull it out. Even more difficult is to operate the trolley with strawberries on the farm, which is very heavy and difficult to push.
There are a lot of mud puddles on the farm, and if you accidentally step on it, it will take half an hour to wash your shoes / Photo provided by the interviewee
The big cat said bluntly: "Super invincible and tired, I have never suffered so much in my life." ”
After working for a month, the big cat saw a kiwifruit factory recruiting packers in Xiaohongshu, so he submitted his resume for an interview and successfully joined the company, which made the job a little easier.
The big cat came to New Zealand for the Christmas holiday, and she later concluded that this time is not really suitable for finding a job, because many people have already taken a holiday, and should choose to be in September or October or January and February, just in time for the kiwi fruit to ripen, and you can quickly find a job as soon as you land, and the hourly wage of the kiwifruit factory is not low, and some are higher than the salary of a restaurant part-time job.
Also in New Zealand, Gandalf found a housekeeping job at one of the best hotels in Auckland, cleaning the hotel rooms, and this job was introduced to her by a friend, so she started to work smoothly soon after she landed.
The housekeeping job is hard, but it's still a good choice for WHVers who need a stable job. Gandalf told Nanfeng Window that the most important thing in finding a job in New Zealand is mobility, because the work here is "more urgent, a radish and a pit, if you are one step late, others will take it".
In order to come to New Zealand, Gandalf made a lot of preparations, she took a driver's license, learned English, and, thinking of doing hard work in New Zealand, she lost nearly 100 pounds in a year, "If you are too fat, you can't compete with others for the same position."
Before going abroad, Gandalf was a piano teacher, her working hours were fixed in the evenings, mainly to give piano lessons to children after school, after going abroad, the content and way of work changed, for her, the biggest change is that her work has become particularly healthy, go to bed early and get up early.
When it comes to working holidays in New Zealand, income is an unavoidable topic. According to the latest hourly wage standard announced by New Zealand in 2024, the minimum hourly wage has risen to 23.15 New Zealand dollars, which is about 99 yuan when converted into RMB, and the monthly income can reach 3,704 New Zealand dollars (about 16,000 yuan) based on a 40-hour work week.
New Zealand's minimum hourly wage/Courtesy of respondents
Wages in New Zealand are not low, which is one of the purposes for which many people travel to New Zealand. However, the cost of local prices is also high. Gandalf said that the hotel where she works does not include accommodation, and that she spends a lot of money on food and rent. "If you don't have to change jobs everywhere, it's still okay to save 8 to 100,000 yuan a year, but this is very idealistic, it costs money to go out and play at every turn, and you can start with at least 3k New Zealand dollars for self-driving around the island. ”
Hot-after spots
In 2008, New Zealand began opening up WHV visa applications to Chinese nationals, with a total of 1,000 places per year for Chinese citizens aged 18 to 30.
Correspondingly, the intermediary used to be relatively "close to the people", and on social platforms, some people posted the intermediary price seven or eight years ago, when it was only 1,000 yuan, and the cheap ones were a few hundred.
In recent years, the number of applicants has increased year by year, and it is difficult to find one.
The role of the intermediary is to use the technical means of its own system to lock in the quota as soon as possible after the opening of the website of the Immigration Department. A leading agent said that a total of 345 customers were grabbed from the batch of 392 on August 1, 2023, and another agent wrote on the profile page that all 240 customers with initial slots in August 2023 were grabbed.
In 2022, the intermediary price comparison table compiled by netizens is now generally more than 10,000 yuan/photo provided by the interviewee
If these data are true, it can be found that the places snatched by these head intermediaries account for the vast majority of the 1,000 places.
The big cat also got the quota through an intermediary, and the price was only more than 7,000 at that time, and after a year, it skyrocketed to nearly 16,000.
Not all agents are reliable, and there is a lot of luck in wanting to rely on them to sign up successfully. Big Cat told Nanfeng Window, "The success rate of intermediaries is different every year, I remember that there was an intermediary who was very powerful the year before last, it was a dark horse, and finally grabbed a lot of places, but last year he overturned and only grabbed two or three places, so this kind of thing still depends on luck." ”
On the Internet, some people have summed up the intermediary prices of different echelons, compared with two years ago, the prices have generally risen, and, due to the difficulty of grabbing the early bird quota of popular intermediaries, intermediary services to help intermediaries have appeared on the second-hand platform, and the prices of these services are between 100 and 300 yuan.
Soaring intermediary fees are only part of the cost. In the big cat's view, there are many places to spend money to work abroad, "but also air tickets, examination fees, and physical examination fees", and at the same time, it is not necessarily possible to find a job immediately after landing, "the money in the early stage must be set aside, and at least 10,000 yuan of living expenses must be prepared."
In fact, the big cat also hesitated after grabbing a spot. After thinking about it for a long time, she decided to experience a new life.
The big cat said that if you look at the salary alone, her salary in China is not low, and it does not belong to "coming out when you can't get along", and she also understood the work intensity of WHV in advance, and with the idea of experiencing the outside world firsthand, she made up her mind to come out to "see the world".
Work, vacation, travel?
When referring to her own experience, Gandalf believes that her experience is not so representative, because she did not go to the farm, nor did she go to the fair, let alone live in a hostel chase shop, "I can do it if I pick fruit for a day or two, and I will run away after a week."
"There's no need to embarrass yourself. ”
Gandalf considers herself lucky to have not experienced too much anxiety about finding a job and the difficulty of being embarrassed by a bad landlord, and the house she is renting now belongs to a Taiwanese landlord with a good personality, who often cooks food for them, and uses water and electricity as they like, unlike other landlords who require tenants to take a shower and wash clothes after 9 p.m. in order to save electricity.
However, there have been times when she worked until she collapsed. She was particularly impressed by the fact that at work, she knocked on the door and found that it was a family of three, and her parents brought their children to participate in the violin competition, which made her particularly emotional, at this time, as a waiter, remembered her experience of teaching piano in China, "Although I know that there is no distinction between high and low professions, but at that moment there is inevitably a gap." I had mixed feelings and wondered why I had traveled across the ocean to do this job. ”
Gandalf's hotel room that needs to be sorted out/Courtesy of the interviewee
In February, Gandalf tried to get a job that would allow him to get a sponsored work permit. An employer-sponsored work permit allows you to work in New Zealand for 3-5 years, but the condition is that the hourly wage can reach NZ$29.66, which is generally difficult to achieve. A friend told her that a motel in Rotorua, a small town in the central North Island, was hiring people who could pay more than hotels in Auckland.
In order to get this visa, Gandalf drove three hours to the hotel, and after a trial work, he found that the place was very "pitted", "the boss was nitpicky, could not accept that there were traces of use in the room, and there was no standard work process", and the words were not friendly to Asians. Through chatting with her roommate, she found out that the boss was not a reputable employer at all, so she was not eligible to vouch for it.
Later, she chose to return to Auckland, changed to a hotel, and continued to do her old job.
Gandalf bluntly said that the biggest problem encountered in part-time work is the boredom of manual labor and the repetition and monotony of two-point and one-line life. After realizing this state, she figured out that she should not save too much, "I need to do something 'unnecessary' to improve my happiness, and don't let life become nothing but work and eating and sleeping."
Gandalf's work photo/Courtesy of the interviewee
After landing, the big cat also quickly bought a car, and often asked new friends to travel by car, "Many attractions in New Zealand are free, I think I must have fun when I come, just work, what is the difference between me and China?"
In a foreign country, Big Cat met colleagues and friends from other countries, "maybe there are not as many people in China as there are in a day in a year." Interestingly, people from different countries also have distinct personalities, for example, there are a few French colleagues who left because they were very busy in the factory for a while, and they felt too tired, "they don't value income very much, it doesn't matter".
Working abroad is not easy, but being in a different rhythm will give people a new insight. Compared with China, the days of big cats in New Zealand are relatively calm, and they may even feel a little bored. "My previous job was 24 hours a day, no matter what time it was, someone would send me a message and tell me what I wanted to dock, but now it's like going back to basics, focusing on my own things every day, and I don't have so much time to scroll through my phone and watch videos. ”
Before going abroad, the big cat's English was not very good, she said, she did not become very good after coming to New Zealand, "but it doesn't matter, I don't understand, I will ask again, ask until I understand, in fact, others will be very patient to explain to you." ”
Photo courtesy of Fijian colleagues/interviewees who love to chase domestic idol dramas and local short dramas
Big Cat recalled that the work in China is very tiring, often there is no day off for a month, and the work in the kiwifruit factory is also tiring, but the leader will still be more polite, often say thank you for coming to work, and the work will end early and clock them in according to the normal end time, "Relatively speaking, I will feel a little more respect, not so much PUA." ”
In addition to New Zealand, Australia is currently one of the most popular working holiday destinations, but competition is less fierce in Australia, with 5,000 places being released each year and more job options available.
As for Gandalf's collection of visas, it generally means that in order to obtain the extension of the visa, the corresponding working hours/payslips need to be collected, for example, New Zealand stipulates that if you have completed three months of seasonal work in a specific type of work, you can apply for a three-month visa extension. However, these jobs are generally on farms or butchers with high physical requirements, or in remote locations. If you think about collecting lots from the beginning, you will have to face more physical strength and energy in your part-time life.
Whether it is Gandalf or the big cat knows, the outside world has a lot of doubts about WHV, the big cat thinks, "Everything is to experience it in person to know whether it is good or not, maybe we have been too important to gain and lose since childhood, we have to find a meaning, what am I doing this job for, I don't think so, just follow your heart and be happy." If you make up your mind to come out, you must consider economic issues and cultural issues, otherwise many people may come for a month or two and can't stand it and leave, the cost is very high, and you must give yourself a proper psychological construction. ”
Author | Monet
Editor-in-Chief on Duty|Huang Mingting
Edit | Ah Shu
Typography | promise