Travel in New Zealand - Wazoka

I traveled in New Zealand from the 17th of October 2003 to the 14th of April 2004 which is 6 months.
I only had a basic tourist visa. Just after I resigned from my job, my first idea was to go in... Ireland. But then, after a few weeks I though that I could even go to a more far English speaking country (learn English was the main objective of this trip). And guess what : New Zealand is the most far country in the world from France !
I would prefer had a working holiday visa but no more were available at this period of the year. That's why I applied for a tourist visa.

To go there without any work visa neither working holiday visa and without a lot of money is not that easy. Even I sold everything I had before this trip (car, motorbike, TV, furnitures, electric appliances... well everything!) I still had to find a way to survive that long.
And then I heard about wwoofing... I guess some of you are wondering what I'm talking about !
The idea of wwoofing is pretty simple: you work in a farm (usually following organic methods) for about 4 to 5 hours a day. In return you get free food and free accommodation!
If you want to be a member of the organization, you just need to fill a form on the net (www.wwoof.co.nz) and to send a few (NZ) bucks. In return you get a book with the contact addresses and phone numbers of every single place offering this exchange.

What's great with this system is that you live (and work) with people from the country you visit, not just as a tourist. A very good way to discover the local way of life !
In addition it was an excellent way to learn English!
Finally that's also a good way to meet other wwoofers from many different countries!
I might be lucky, but still I didn't have any bad experience while wwoofing. The only thing is that you might sometimes get a bit bored as the farms are rarely close to big cities.
Sometimes there is some public transport not far or bicycles available for wwoofers. But believe me or not : it's not easy to come back from a club in bicycle...
Anyway thanks to this organization I could learn a bunch of new stuffs and meet many nice people.

I traveled by bus by going from a place to an other whenever I wanted. Not the best way financially speaking but a lot of liberty especially compare to organized tours.
To make simple I went (in chronological order) to: Auckland, Rotorua, Taupo, Tongariro National Park, Wellington, Picton, Nelson, Abel Tasman National Park , Kaikoura, Christchurch, Dunedin, Queenstown, Milford Sound and Te Anau.
I haven't been to the Mount Cook nor the glaciers areas located on the East coast of the South Island. The first reason is that I can see mountains and glaciers in many places, especially in France. The second (and main) reason is that I needed to keep some money as I had decided to go to Australia too!