Jon has made the effort to give a brief summary of how my departing from the UK went. Thank you for that. Now I will try to tell you guys the whole story…

It all began about a year ago when my second academic year resumed in Bournemouth University. Our lecturers were preparing us for our placement year and giving us options to choose from. Many seemed tempting but nothing really caught my attention. I am doing a Tourism management course and what I wanted to do is work in an adventure tourism resort. When I ‘googled’ it, all that came up was New Zealand and that is how I decided, I am going there for my internship!!

As Jon described, it was one exciting preparation. I handed in my application at the beginning of 2009 but due to the economic crunch, I had to wait a very long time until I had a proposition. In fact, I received it 3 weeks before departure. It was a mission to get everything organised in such a short time. My Visa was ready in less than 24 hours.

I had to get a last minute flight and booked one with the Emirates Airline (London, Dubai, Sidney and Auckland). Being a Bulgarian citizen, I needed to have a transit Visa for Australia. I didn’t know that! I found out at the check in deck. There was no way I could get that visa from the airport so I missed that flight. I thought the whole world was falling into pieces.. However, this was just another obstacle. I booked another flight the next day stopping at Hong Kong where I didn’t require anything to transit. This was the longest flight ever!!! I never want to do it again. But I will!!

New Zealand is amazing! Since I first laid foot on the land it felt like a place from the tales.. “A land far, far away”

I got an offer in Rotorua at a tourism attraction as a Food & Beverage Attendant for 6 months. My requirement from university is to have 40 weeks of practical training which means that I need approximately another 3 months.

Tracy who is the Human Resources Manager at my work made the offer. She was of great help to me! Tracy met up with me the day after my arrival in Rotorua. She took me for a coffee in town and we discussed all my affairs. After that, Tracy helped me open a New Zealand bank account and arranged some sort of tax number I needed in order to get paid. She even helped me find a suitable accommodation, which was exactly what I was looking for: close to work and close to town with internet access. I am so grateful to Tracy since she was not obligated to do all that for me but she did and made me feel welcome from day one!

Not only Tracy but also everyone at work are very friendly and welcomed me with a smile. In fact, some of those colleagues are now close friends and we hang out together on our days off. I am so lucky to be a part of the team!!

Currently I am 3 month into my placement and I work mainly night shifts in the restaurant. A typical day for me starts about 3 PM and ends depending on how busy it is. The earliest time I have finished is about 10 PM and the latest 3 AM. Work is always fun, my colleagues are really nice and fun to work with and I always enjoy it.

I have applied for cross training and this week I start on a new position as a Customer Service Ambassador. I hope to get some shift at the Luge too. Tracy will try to keep me in the company until July if possible. She said that if there were no chance of me staying in Rotorua, she would try transferring me to Queenstown in South Island. That would be the best opportunity ever having the experience of both islands.

The restaurant I work in is on Ngongotaha Mountain (which is more of a hill) and I get to ride the gondola everyday. The restaurant has a magnificent view of the whole town and the Rotorua Lake and the sight reveals how once upon a time Rotorua was in fact a crater of a volcano!! The town by itself is amazing; it is a hot spot not only for thermal activity but also for tourism.

On my days off, I try to do some tourism related activities if I am not too busy with my course work. As I mentioned earlier I made great friends from work and they take me around the area as tour guides! There is still so much I want to do here, but right now is the busiest period of the year and I try to concentrate on performing my best at work.

I am so happy and so lucky to be here and I owe it all to Intern Options and especially Jon!! Thank you so much for making my dream come true!

I wish everyone best of luck and have an amazing experience in New Zealand as I am!

Best wishes and kind regards,

Polly

If you’re interested in a Tourism Internship in Queenstown, Auckland, Wellington, Rotorua in New Zealand, check out the Tourism Internships page for more information.

After many long months of anxious waiting I received a phone call saying that a placement was found and that in just over a month I’d be in New Zealand.

The first few weeks of work were exciting as I was placed on the Luge (buggie) at the tourism attraction I work at (which is on top of a mountain overlooking Queenstown). The people and the nightlife here are incredible…there’s so much going on.

The work is great, although it can get repetitive at times especially now in the summer when we’re open for long hours…the work is entirely outdoors and you are constantly face-to-face with customers. However, the life here is second to none…there is always something to do activity-wise and am finding it difficult to do everything here before I leave in June, the options are limitless!

Finding your own accommodation here can be difficult if you arrive during the summer and winter months and if you are on your own. The Lakes Weekly Bulletin – the local magazine/paper is a great help as it advertises heaps of accommodation available as well as other things. But for me, I decided to stay in a hostel across the road from where i work. It’s very close to town, its got several long-term residents, you meet new people each and everyday and on top of that…..its loads of fun!! In a nutshell – it resembles the student dorms you get at uni.

I have since spoken to many of my friends about each of their placements as well as mine and the majority (not including those who went overseas) have said how jealous they were of me and wished they went abroad for their placement – particularly to New Zealand. The only downside…if any…is that its very easy to get homesick during the first few months if you are by yourself…so take the extra step to make friends and meet new people and you’ll come out on top.

Looking back at the past 6 months I can honestly say that I am glad I took the risk to work abroad in New Zealand for my placement year. Jon and Intern Options were very helpful back in November when I first took interest in this incredible opportunity, and throughout the months the advice they provided was really great, the information provided on insurance, flights and visas was also helpful and made the final steps of the placement planning easy and painless.

The only drawback – again if any – was the waiting process. It was not until May that I received the confirmation (which meant that looking for another placement in case this one fell through was necessary). But in the end patience sufficed, and am here now having the time of my life on the other side of the world. Thank you Jon and everyone at Intern Options for everything.

If you’re interested in a Tourism Internship like Kyle’s in Queenstown, Auckland, Wellington, Rotorua in New Zealand, you can check out the Tourism Internships page for more information.

Name: Polina

University: Bournemouth University

Course: BA (Hons) Tourism Management

Currently in: Rotorua, New Zealand

For how long: 6 months

Polina is the 7th tourism or hospitality student from Bournemouth we have placed into New Zealand this year. Polina was initially looking for a 12 month tourism internship in New Zealand, but we ended up placing her into a fantastic position in Rotorua for a six month internship. I think Polina is then either going to extend her visa if the company will keep her on, or head home to Bulgaria to her family resort to complete her final three months of her course requirement at Bournemouth.

Well Polina finally got to New Zealand but not without some drama!

The offer was quite late and we had four days to get Polina down to New Zealand in the end. The New Zealand work visa that usually takes 10 days, Intern Options had done in 1 day, her flights were booked, insurance purchased and Polina got to the airport… I will let Polina tell you what happened from here!

But the main thing is that Polina is working for a great tourism operator in Rotorua, New Zealand who we place a lot of students and graduates into their operations in Rotorua and Queenstown. Elis another of our students from London South Bank University has just been offered a six month placement and will be joining Polina soon.

That’s enough from me and I will leave you to Polina to fill you in on the details of what happened when she arrived at the airport in London ready to get on the plane to New Zealand )

If you’re interested in a Tourism Internship in Queenstown, Auckland, Wellington, Rotorua in New Zealand, check out the Tourism Internships page for more information.