Hey all, just curious how you’d handle this and what your experience is with it.
Since early this year we’re fulltime sitters. We both work remotely so we are very flexible in terms of where to work from and so far we’re loving THS. But we want to combine this flexibilty and not having a homebase by traveling around.
So, we’re looking at wanting to go to New Zealand over the winter (so summer in NZ), but of course we don’t have a sit there yet. Do you have experience with this? What would you recommend doing? Just buy the flights and hope for good sit locations? Set up a homebase somewhere? Go with the flow?
Very curious to hear your experience and tips how to handle this.
We have been looking for sits in new zealand for a while now, we fly there on the 7th December, we’ve got 1 sit for over Christmas but I’ve noticed that they seem to leave arrangements quite late there, with sits going on with just a few weeks notice. There’s a few going on now for over Christmas but many still asking for sitters for July and August.
Small tip to get more responses here.
Change your query here to include New Zealand.
I know there are members here who travelled as long as a year in New Zealand and Australia pet sitting.
What I do in other countries is book a few or even one if available and go prepared to fend for myself if necessary. It varies with the country as some have many more sits than others but NZ and Oz seem to have a fair enough number. I also know they use other local sites. I was able to do two months in Australia last year just in one sit.
And as has been said it’s early yet.
Best wishes
Hi @Wraldpyk, New Zealand rarely has many THS listings advertised. You would be better joining Kiwi Housesitters as well as that is where you are most likely to get sits. Good luck and enjoy your time in NZ.
Yes, Aussies and Kiwis tend to have longer holidays and advertise closer to as Amparo and Redlady says. I would suggest as well as THS that you look into Kiwi Housesitters also which many members on this Forum have used successfully. It is an arm of Aussie Housesitters which is a fantastic site and where I get the majority of my sits when at home. @Smiley would be a good one for this topic.
We are also planning a trip to NZ end of January for a few months, back sometime mid April. We have friends in Christchurch so hoping to kick off there, maybe some sits around there and then move north to Auckland for the flight home. I have a few saved searches set up but nothing much coming in yet. I will give it a few months and then sign up for kiwi housesitters. Hoping someone might have a RAF code to share .
Hi, I was in Australia and New Zealand last year. I booked a one way flight to Australia and, later on, a return flight from Auckland. I let myself some time to fit different sits before I got the flight from Australia to New Zealand (in November) But, as others have mentioned, there were not many listings in THS, so I spent most of my time in Australia, got just one sit in NZ and the rest just stayed at Airb&b.
If I had to plan again, I would spend more time in New Zealand (which I really loved) and would join kiwi housesitters. You can check their listings even if you’re not a member.
Sorry, I haven’t renewed as am back in the UK. But you won’t have any problem finding sits in Christchurch. THS tends to have more sits in the North island I’ve found, so Kiwihousesitters is good for the south
Furthest I did was England. I was keeping an eye on new listings until something really nice showed up: three weeks in Cambridge. Then I bought a rebookable one-way ticket for the ferry.
Then another very desirable sit showed up: ten days in Bath. There was a gap of about two weeks between those sits, and that I could fill up after I had arrived in Cambridge.
I think I would choose a similar approach when I see something irresistable in the Caribbean or Greece or South-East Asia or …
Problem is of course the risk of cancellations and the extra expense of flexible air tickets. Anyway: next long journey will be a second trip with the super-flexible Interrail ticket.
We spent three months in New Zealand last winter (UK citizens). We had a couple of sits booked already before we travelled. It was easy to get a sit over Christmas and then the rest just flowed. Definitely join Kiwi Sitters.
We travelled in both the north and south islands. Don’t worry, airbnbs are very cheap in New Zealand and very good quality. So is rental cars. I loved my time there and have plans to return in the not too distant future.
@Wraldpyk if you’re going to travel this way over our peak period times, you need to book flights/ferries/car/etc now. Happy to be of help & if you land a sit in Christchurch, cool!
There are some out of the way gems if that floats your boat. We were overwhelmed with the welcome we got at most of the places we stayed. Very friendly people.
Register for the kiwi sitter site. But be prepared for a different sort of sit/application - fewer pictures and information - but we got very lucky with the half dozen we did off that site.
Good luck and enjoy your time there.
We found it very cheap for accommodation and car hire. The car wasn’t top of the range and had lots of bumps and scratches but it drove well. We did a long term rent. And the standard of accommodation was way beyond what we expected for the price we paid. We sat most of our time there but when we wanted to go somewhere specific to do touristy things we paid. Fantastic country.
I also found accommodation was reasonably priced and car rental quite cheap, especially considering that the pick up and drop off locations were different. The surcharge for that was ridiculous!
I absolutely loved the country and the people. Also enjoyed the company of the sweetest doggy. She started crying when she saw I was leaving, only after a long weekend. It was heartbreaking! I still miss her
The Australian and New Zealand dollar is so poor against the US/UK/Euro that I’m not surprised that anyone going to NZ or Oz would find their money goes a heck of a lot further.
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