Hi all. I’m fairly new on this subreddit so if I’ve missed anything painfully obvious I’m sorry. If you can point me in the right direction if you think there’s a better place for this that would be really appreciated.

I’m in the process of applying for a working holiday visa for 12 months in New Zealand with the option to increase up to 23 months. I’m looking for any advice people might want to share about either getting settled into New Zealand or recommending anything I’ve not considered.

A bit about me as this hopefully helps with advice/answers: I’m 28M from UK, 29 in April. I’ve lived several places in UK, but lived here my whole life. I’ve recently travelled to USA and Japan (both fantastic places) and I’ve always been curious about moving and potentially living in another country. I feel like UK has never really done it for me and have found myself fitting in cultures better elsewhere. I appreciate this might be a holiday thing, but I’ve always seen living somewhere else as a positive life decision for me. This time last year I had a bit of an existential crisis and found that, approaching my thirties, my future was looking like something I didn’t want to be a part of. The past year has been emotionally demanding for me and after breaking away from a 12-year relationship in August I feel I’ve nothing to lose other than my job and some savings to try and stimulate myself and fulfil the promise I made to myself of moving away before I’m 30. I would describe my main setback to this goal as typically being a catastrophic thinker and being petrified that something won’t go to plan, but I’m trying to work on this. I’m currently working as a Data Warehouse Developer (SQL-based) for a financial institution and have been doing this for around 3 years so not new to the role, but not senior. I’d ideally like to find work out in New Zealand that’s related to this career path as I feel it would probably give me the best opportunities if I consider something more permanent in future. I attended University, but never finished my degree so have no tertiary qualifications.

My questions are:

• When looking for semi-relevant temporary jobs I’ve found most listings to be in either Wellington or Auckland. When I’ve looked at living costs, geography and climate Wellington seems to be the preferred option. Should I be considering anything else?
• I’ve tried to look for job positions related to my industry as I feel this will stand me in better stead if I want to consider a permanent move. How important do you think this is and am I overthinking this based on the position only likely starting as 6-9 months’ work?
• With temporary jobs is there apprehension from employers to offer a job to someone on a visa as opposed to a permanent resident? Basically, are the job opportunities I’m seeing achievable so long as I interview well?
• When looking for accommodation should I be looking for hotels/Airbnb or should I be renting somewhere instead if that’s allowed under the visa?
• Is it easy to open a bank account? Do I need permanent residence for an address or would a hotel and IRD number be enough?
• In order to get around would it be cheaper to rent a car/motorcycle or buy/sell/lease a used? I know this question’s a bit subjective based on the used car/bike, but is that even an option with a temporary address?
• My total budget for the visit is looking to be ~17k NZD which I’m hoping would last me at least 6 months based on not being able to get work and still being able to travel somewhat. Is this feasible or am I way out?
• Is there anywhere in particular where I could build up a network of friends based in New Zealand? Bit of a strange question, but I wouldn’t know where to start really!

I appreciate this is a long post and I’ve asked quite a few questions here. I definitely have more floating around in my head, but thought I’d get some of the main ones covered. Any guidance from someone who’s been in a similar scenario or New Zealanders would be really, really helpful. Thanks.