My Great Adventure

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On November 7th I leave Sweden for an exciting year in New Zealand, where the plan is to work and travel across the country. This has been my dream for quite some time and after some hard work it’s finally coming true! Since I’ve never set foot in Kiwiland before, I’m super excited. The culture, climate, food, basically everything’s going to be new to me. Not to mention I’ll be speaking in a different language than my mother tongue for a year. Just wow! :grin:

With only my Deus and the Gold Monster as my travel buddies, it would be nice to meet up with some new friends. If there is anyone here that wouldn’t mind to take a 19 years old lad under his/her wing I would really appreciate it. Ever since I was a kid I’ve dreamed about digging gold for real (by “real” I mean digging with the right equipments and actually finding something :joy:). But I reckon it’s kinda pointless to just go out there without any experience and expect to find gold… :sweat_smile:

My golden “Have To Try This List”

-dredging
-gold panning
-sniping for gold
-nugget hunting with metal detector
-relic hunting with metal detector

Fishing is my second passion in life, besides metal detecting, so if there are any good fishing spots (I know that this can be a sensitiv question…), please let me know. I mostly do spinn fishing, both in fresh and salt water. All species are of interest :fishing_pole_and_fish:

Also, if there is anyone who lives on a large property with a lot of farm work to be done, or just needs an extra hand at home I’m more than happy to help. I can do pretty much anything in change of accommodation. Cleaning, farm work, cooking etc. Just send me a private message and I’ll tell you more about myself :slight_smile:

What I want to achieve with this journey is to gain experiences that last a lifetime, meet new interesting people and learn more about the Kiwi way of living. Improved skills in English and all the gold I will find (or not) are just bonuses. Therefore it would be so awesome if there actually was somebody who would respond to this. I really want to get the most out of this journey and an exchange, an opportunity to spend some time with locals, would mean everything to me.

Many thanks for taking your time reading this and happy hunting! :innocent:

//Elias

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First question I have is. How well do you speak English? Do you have a full understanding of words and sentences? Or do you just do what Asians do, and say yes to everything. The reason I ask is because cables break, rocks roll, and people die dredging. I, nor anyone else is willing to give you or anyone else a chance if you don’t understand English. The last thing someone wants to do is have to fill in a dredging hole with a tourist.

Second question is. What kind of experience do you have being in the outdoors. Have you ever set up a tent, started a fire in the rain, walked in the cold until you were tired and ready to go to bed, but knew if you stopped walking you would die? If you have only ever walked on a groomed hiking/tramping trail, stick to the public fossicking areas. That way at least someone might see you floating face down in the river and possibly save your life.

Thrid question is. Other then a few nuggets if you find any. What kind of money/gold are you hopping to get out of this. People who dredge, work very hard and pay lots of money to own a claim. If I was asking to have someone teach me how to dredge, and keep me alive, I wouldn’t expect much more then a few nuggets and a memory to last a life time.

Not to crush your dream mate, but NZ is a lot different then anywhere else in the world. My river came up 6 meters/25ft over night last year. When things go wrong in NZ’s bush, people usually die for the mistakes.

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Check out this site for some farm work.

Good luck, hope you have a great time.
Keep your wits about you too, we have bad people here as everywhere.

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Hey mate!

Thanks for your replay! I’ve answered your questions below:

  1. I do speak English. I wouldn’t boost too much about my speaking skills, but I consider myself average. If there’s anything I don’t understand, then I simply ask. However, I see this journey as an excellent opportunity to practice my English. Just give me some time and I’ll improve. To answer your question, yes I would most likely understand your instructions unless you have a “strange” accent, or are talking to fast.

  2. I’m a devoted outdoorsman who loves being out in the bush. I guess it comes naturally when your greatest passions in life are fishing and metal detecting… You wonder if I’ve ever set up a tent, you bet I have! If I could, I would be camping at least once a week, but you know school/work are getting in the way. I’ve spent quite some time in the Swedish mountains, me and my friend use to go there to fish for artic char and trout. Last summer we were away for a week, carrying all our stuff on our backs, through rain (and snow!?) up the mountain, sleeping in tent with temperatures below 0 and mosquitos everywhere! The bush in New Zealand might be rough, but I’m confident that I’ll be able to handle it. I can be really stubborn when I want something badly and I won’t give up. However, I respect the force of nature and stand humble before it.

  3. Let’s be very clear on this point, I’m not after money! The only reason I do metal detecting and gold panning is because I find it so exciting. End of story. I never sell anything I find, never! To me, the objects that I find (may it be gold, or silver) are worth more than the few bucks I might get for them on the market. It’s the feeling of finding treasure that gets me going, not the value of the stuff i find.

Ever since I was little, finding gold has been my dream. As a kid I used to read cartoons. Scrooge McDuck soon became one of my role models and he still is. He’s the reason I got into gold in the first place. I remember how he in one episode was detecting on a beach, finding coins and jewelry. I read with big eyes and some years later I bought my first detector, the X-Terra 705. Today I’ve got 4 great detectors in my arsenal. Sure, Scrooge is a greedy fuck, oh I mean duck, but he is an adventurer. That’s what I want to be as well, an adventurer! Keeping all the awesome stuff I find as memories of my adventures.

What I’m trying to say is that I follow my heart, rather than the wallet. Sure, how great wouldn’t it be to find some nice gold, but I’m glad if I find anything at all really. I wish to find a nugget to wear around my neck, but I know that it might be hard. It doesn’t mean I won’t try to find one though… :smirk:

When it comes to dredging I just want to see a dredge in action and maybe try it, if possible. If I got the opportunity to go panning on anyones claim I totally would respect if I didn’t get to keep what I find since I’m just a guest. It had been very kind if I could keep some as memory though, but I don’t expect anyone to just give away “their” gold like that. Just to be able to be around some more experienced diggers and to learn the ropes of gold digging would be great.

Hope you got your questions answered. If you have any tips, or know anybody that might have, I would really appreciate it. Thanks :slight_smile:

//Elias

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Thanks mate!

Thanks for the tip! I’ve been looking around on different sites as well. The reason why I ask here is that I think it would be such an exciting exchange to work/live with a real gold digger :joy: I’ll totally try wwoofing, it’s on my list :wink: