|
|
12/04/06 - 18/04/06 -
CHRISTCHURCH: THE QUEST FOR THE WORK VISA
Before I set off from home, I went into STA Travel in Bournemouth and asked them if I could get my New Zealand Work Holiday Visa through them. They said yes. I brought in my passport, they did some stuff on the computer, charged me £75 and said everything was sorted.
Monday 10th April, I arrived in New Zealand to be told at customs that I had no NZ Work Visa. Shit. It turns out STA forgot to tell me I needed to send my passport off to the NZ Embassy to get it stamped, and now NZ customs told me I couldn't get one whilst I was here. In short, STA's mistake could completely ruin my holiday.
That night I phoned STA and their response was basically "Oh dear, that is a bit of a pickle, we'll get back to you."
So on Wednesday (after that LOTR tour on Tuesday), I began to formulate a plan to not only assassinate the staff at STA Bournemouth, but also sort out my Work Visa. I went in to the Immigration offices and they said I COULD get a Work Visa whilst I was here, but I would have to take a medical exam and have a chest x-ray.
The medical exam went fine. However, they didn't ask about my broken rib and ruptured kidney incident in Greece last summer, which meant they were a bit suspicious when I was quite at ease having my blood taken. The just assumed I was a very brave boy, not that I'd had about 50 injections a day for over a week in June.
The blood test results wouldn't be ready until Tuesday, which meant I had an extra week to kill in Christchurch. I didn't want to spend much, until I knew where I stood with my visa, so I spent the week just playing my guitar, playing pool, reading and watching TV. I actually had the flu so I didn't feel up to much anyway.
One day I got a cable car up the mountains to get amazing views across Christchurch and out to the Pacific Ocean. As soon as you walk a few minutes away from the top of the cable car, you have the whole place to yourself. The paths were deserted. I found a few good spots to sit and just soak up the views. I stayed up their until the evening, where I bought a beer at teh cable car station's cafe and watched the sunset.
Finally on Tuesday, I got the results from my blood test, and all the medical stuff was sorted. I then went over to Immigration and an hour later I had my Work Holiday Visa! SUCCESS! The medical and the visa cost over $500 which I of course will be charging STA for.
This means on Thursday I'll start the Kiwi Experience, the bus that will take me to Queenstown where I'll look for a job. There's 4 stops on the way which means 5 days of non-stop partying before I get to Queenstown...
Next: Edoras
Previous: The Kiwi Experience: The Road To Queenstown
Main Menu |
|
|
|
© 2009 18 Til I Die.co.uk. All
rights reserved.
Web site comments to admin@18tilidie.co.uk
The images and photographs of Bryan Adams are reproduced with the
kind permission of Adams Communications. These images and photographs
are not to be reproduced without the specific permission of Adams
Communications (and, where applicable, any separate copyright owner).
| | |
