Auckland. Day 1

Reached Auckland airport at 5.15am from Melbourne. Going through the immigration took 1hr. Security was tight. Lucky I got the YHA Auckland City address to fill in for the arrival card. If not we might get into trouble =="

Actually not much preparation was done. Only a brief plan in my mind. Find YHA Auckland, get a local mobile number, create bank account and deposit our cash in, and find a job. I was expecting all this to be done within a week.

BUT, I forgot the most importing stuff. New Zealand IRD number. This number is needed when working in NZ. According to its website, they will need 8 to 10 working days to sent us our IRD number, which means my plan is definitely delayed, which means, we need to spend our own money for 2 weeks at least, which is, roughly half of the money we bring.

OMFGLOLBBQSAUCE!!!

Currently thinking of a way to reduce our spending. The only idea I hav now is to join WWOOF NZ, with registration fee of NZD40. Free food and free accomodation provided in return for working with the host. At least we get used to the locals, and have better understanding of how things work around here. hmmm....

EDIT: now opening bank account in NZ is not easy. They require ur passport and another document which shows ur permanent address in NZ. The problem is, they dont accept documents from backpackers hostel to prove that you are staying there. What we do at the moment, we get the bank to sent letter to our friend's place in NZ and use that as a prove for the 2nd document. The whole process sound stupid, seriously. And too much hassle for backpackers. Takes too much time to just open a bank account. I found out the other way, which is to set up your account with kiwi bank before you actually go to NZ. Further info can be obtain from kiwi bank webpage.