New Zealand Travel and Tourism Internships - Available Now!

As an intern at one of Australasia's leading adventure travel companies, you'll experience a variety of roles. During your five month programme, you'll get opportunities to work across many facets of the company. We will treat you as an equal team member, provide you with support and mentoring and give you a taste of many aspects of our industry. From helping to prepare client itineraries and bookings to researching new products, assisting with marketing, website content development, accounting and payment processes.

Examples for support tasks would be sending out brochures, loading rates into the system or running errands. More challenging support tasks would be issuing and checking travel documents and managing the GPS bookings. As the internship progresses, the tasks become more challenging –  which leads to a deeper knowledge and insight into our business. 

You can have out of hours access to office facilities to complete university study and you have direct access to our Internship Supervisor, who can provide you with feedback on what you're doing well and areas you can improve on.  We hire interns throughout the year, which means there'll always be senior interns to work with and learn from. Occasionally, there are opportunities for extending the internships and even offers of employment.

After many years' running an internship programme, the main quality we look for is motivation and enthusiasm. Of course, an understanding of written and spoken English is an advantage, as is being multi-lingual! You'll need to be computer literate, with typing, Word and Excel skills.

Our most successful interns have an open-minded approach, are good problem solvers and have a genuine passion for travel. 

Intern supervisor Anne says 'Interns that are quick, accurate and interested are challenged with more complex tasks, which gives them deeper insights and higher value experience.'

First Light Travel's modern, open-plan headquarters is found in the heart of central Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand. The company started out as "First Light Travel New Zealand" in 2001, targetting inbound travel including adventure self drive tours and small group tours. In 2008 First Light Travel expanded and launched two new websites. One for inbound travel in Australia (www.firstlighttravel.com.au) and one for luxury travel in New Zealand (www.absolutenewzealand.com). The Australian division is called “First Light Travel Australia” and sells mainly inbound adventure self drive tours and small group tours in Australia. Luxury travel in New Zealand for discerning clients can be booked on “Absolute New Zealand”. This department is divided into privately escorted, self drive and small group tours. One of our latest brands is “Island Escapes” (www.island-escapes.com) focusing on Honeymoons, adventure activities like diving and wellness and relaxation in the South Pacific Islands.

An internship with First Light Travel comes with many benefits. Firstly, we believe we are the only New Zealand-based adventure tourism company running a programme like this. We welcome interns as equal members of the FLT team, providing structure and support so that the interns have a positive travel and learning experience. While there is no direct compensation, we strongly encourage interns to take advantage of the many perks of working in the travel industry. For example we help you find free and discounted trips and activities. Through our links with Global Dive, interns have access to free scuba diving lessons (terms and conditions apply). There is free use of company bikes from the office in downtown Auckland, and access to camping gear and equipment.  Interns have after hours access to the office to work on university projects and we encourage our interns to show initiative and take on challenging projects in their area of speciality. 

Once you have landed your FLT internship, we'll be in touch with pre arrival packs with detailed information on what to bring with you, what documentation is required. Plus, we will put you in touch with one of our current interns so you can get your questions answered. 

As New Zealand's largest city, Auckland sits on a sparkling harbour, circled by dormant volcanos with a thriving multi-cultural population.  Our FLT culture is high energy and high quality - the downtown HQ environment is a stylish, open plan layout with a smart/casual dress code and the latest technology. 

If you're wondering about accommodation options, we are happy to give advice and support. Most interns start out living in a hostel before settling on accommodation. You can expect to pay NZ$160 - NZ$200 (depending on the suburb) per week for a room in an apartment or shared house. There is plenty of accommodation in the central city and along public transport routes, so there's no need to own a vehicle. 

You will need to apply for an internship visa at the New Zealand Embassy in your country. For more information visit the Immigration New Zealand website.

If you have an enthusiastic and motivated approach to learning, you've come to the right place. To kick start your internship application with First Light Travel, email a copy of your CV and a cover letter to anne@firstlighttravel.com.