After I arrived to the airport, I had to wait 3h for a train to Auckland and then 2h to check in in my hostel. I stayed in Lylo which I believe is one of the best hostels for backpackers and especially jet lag. It is a bit more expensive but you has a private cabin in 4 or 8 ppl room, you can feel very cosy and have a proper sleep plus they clean common areas almost all the time.

Meanwhile I was constantly looking for a job at NZ backpackers group and I found one in Subway in Whitianga with accommodation. I asked about more info and I decided to take it as I was a bit overwhelmed with searching for a room in AKL and planning everything while still having jet lag after a week.

I can say I was pretty lucky as I did not have any plan (totally opposite what I normally do). 

When I came to Auckland, I booked a hostel for 1 week only without knowing whats next but with that job offer, it seemed to be easier.

Whitianga was 3,5h away from the city which was a bit problematic but better for me as I didnt like that city anyway. It was boring, loads of Korean and Chinese people and food, traffic everywhere, plenty of noisy people everywhere, not so many attractions... 

After couple of days in hostel, I switched to airbnb for 2 nights in CBD Grey Lynn as I wanted to experience a bit different place and meet locals or other backpackers. It was not so comfy and clean, but for 2 nights I could survive. At that point I applied for IRD number and went to website of BNZ - bank of new Zeland to open back account. Next day I had already those. 

I still had booked another hostel for the next 5 days so I contacted my future boss that I already have necessary things so I can come next week and start to work. We scheduled the date for 9.10 

There is no public transport within an Island. Sometimes a shuttle drives to some "main" popular/ touristic towns so I found one bus to Whitianga with 5h of driving for 90$...

But I am so clever that I found a cheaper option - a lift (on one of those backpackers NZ group on facebook), as its very popular direction for people from AKL to come here for vacation or to visit families. So I got it for free! I am so lucky :) 

Rest of the adventure about life in Coromandel you can read it here..

Practical Info About New Zeland

New Zeland has amazing online information support and services. Banking, car checkup, camper parkings, plenty of groups on FB with info, TradeMe - the most reliable website and any official government info. 

To start to work anywhere is obligated to have an IRD - tax number and bank account.

Health centre is private and expensive (around 230$ for visit). So before coming here Is good to fix your physical health and the dentist.

Prepare at least 3k Euro as this is one of the top 10 expensive countries in the whole world. While you apply for the visa you have to already show then you are able to survive with your money there (1$ is 2,4PLN).

The transport on the Island is dead - which means you have to either rent ot buy a car to be able to move around.

Right now I am in process of searching a car which is very simple to do it but complicated to find a good one, as its lots of scammers and travellers are not actually investing in a cars so they dont even change some necessary things until it pass WOF (Warrant of safety). Oh! I forgot to mentioned the most important thing, that anywhere is Oceania is left-hand traffic. 

But dont you worry. Everyone here is super friendly and helpful and life is slow which means nobody is in rush, especially in supermarket queues. You can have a 5 min chat with cashier and thats normal thing, so keep that in mind when you run with your errands.

For many many many years the biggest dream of mine was to see Aurora Borealis (done - more info in upcoming article soon) and to visit Lord of The rings land. However I was always thinking, that it will stay in my :dream: zone and not become a real thing as it is so expensive and far away destination. Apparently things in life has certain purpose so my inner gut started to shout at me that it is a possible venture to see Hobbitton. On the other hand my anxiety and mental issues were blocking me to take any decision or action. I was walking with that decision for more than a year (Im not lying. My mental state was not so good those days). However I was getting older and at the age of 29 it was my last chance to fill the application for working holiday visa to New Zeland. You have to be lucky and quick as its only 100 visas available for Poland and it opens at certain date just one time per year. On the day of the application (at 1am), obviously there was a system overload and complications with logging in and my eyes tortured me mercilessly with sleep after a workday. Fortunately, fate so willed that after a week I got a positive response from Immigration centre (You can also check info about available visas).

Its not like I was not prepared for that trip, because actually I was keeping all my saving for this trip but at the same time I could not imagine how it is there, what do I need to do, to manage, to find, to bring with me and etc. It was worse as If something happen or I forget something important, I cannot return in one day to Poland again. 

The trip took me 2 days and it was almost direct flight. I flew with Quatar airlines, with transit (so my suitcase was delivered for me), Krakow-Munich-Quatar-Auckland for around 1250 Euro, out of season. When I went to Munich first with only 1h change which was not good at all, I had to run like crazy (that airport is sooo huge) - catch the shuttle to second terminal, run 1km, catch the bus, run another 1km, go through crowded passport control and finally to the Qatar Airlines queue. I luckily made it but on the bus there was a Spanish girl who was heading to Dubai to work the day after and she missed a flight. She was crying in panic.. 

Then I had 3h change in Quatar where it looked like huuuge shopping mall with lots of gold and sheikhs habibi. Finally I flew through the night and day and I landed at 4am night the day after, I went to the hostel and went to sleep for 15h straight. Quatar airlines made me feel like a Queen with blanket, socks, headphones, movies, hot meals, alcohol and drinks available to you all the time! So the price was definitely worth it but the 22h flight destroyed me as f*ck (see photos below).

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