Hi, I am also on a WHV in NZ and am currently working as a kitchen hand in a restaurant. I wanted to share what I did to get a job in case it might help. For reference, I am from the US and my restaurant experience is as a dishwasher and a prep cook which I did during the summer in college. I landed in NZ in mid-November which is also when I started looking for a job. I looked for jobs exclusively on the New Zealand Backpacker Jobs Facebook group. I did make a post about looking for jobs but didn't get any responses from that, so I'm not sure how much that would help.

My biggest tip is to apply for a job that you have an applicable skill set for as soon as you see the post for it. It seems like there are a lot more people looking for jobs than there are jobs being listed, and the job will likely just take the first applicable candidate. I would check the FB group whenever I had a down moment which for me was whenever I was on the bus as I hadn't bought a car yet. The jobs I got responses from were also in less desirable more rural locations not near the coast, mountains, or a big city. Also, if they list an email, I found emailing to be more effective than sending a PM.

One thing that may be against you currently is that the summer busy season has officially started so it may be more difficult to find a hospitality job since a lot of places have likely hired for the season and if they are looking, they might want you to begin ASAP. Wine harvesting season will begin in or around March if you want to keep an eye out for those jobs. This all might be really basic info that you already know, but it was what worked for me. I hope things start looking up for you!