essential packing advise
 

Hi everyone
We'd be interested to hear from people that have already emigrated to OZ and those of you that are going soon.
What essential items would you recommend packing in your cases to make life easier before the container arrives? Obviously clothes and stuff to keep the kids amused. But was there stuff you really wish you had with you when you first arrived? Also did you take things you wish you'd left behind?
Just curious. I thought it would pass a bit more time while we're waiting, 16 months and counting.

Good question.
Thought i'd put in our two cents worth to get the thread back up the top.

Re: essential packing advise
 

Brillant question pushed it back to the top again.
We leave october and would love to know other peoples opnions on this , as your always bound to get there and think , " oh god i wish i had left that out " or something along those lines.
joanne

Re: essential packing advise
 

Hmm, from a pre-flight POV, here's what we're taking....

2 backpacks, 1 tent, 1 trangia, 2 pairs walking boots, shorts, t-shirts, sawdust from the mouse cage and a spare mouse wheel.

Here's what we've sold and wont be taking (maybe of more use...)
Fridge, freezer, cars (my poor, poor racing green cabrio.. boo hoo), beds, house (of course!), anything that's not nailed down....

Actually, we reasoned that you'll need certain stuff within a very short time (a bed, a fridge, etc) so there's no point in shipping it and waiting 2-3 months, you're gonna need it ASAP, so you'll end up buying replacements whilst you wait for the boat.

So we wrote a list of "now" and "in a few months" and flogged everything else.

Hope this is of use,

Mouse (who's been celebrating T-2 weeks... :beer: )

Hick!

Re: essential packing advise
 

good question
we leave Oct 16 and we are try ing to sort out what we are taking and what were not we are taking 1 rucksack each with shorts shirts and a spare pair of skidies in case of accidents all of our stuff is being shipped o arrive 4 weeks after us so the pressure is off we are only taking the really important stuff in the container chairs table Harley Davidson FXRC 5 kayaks and the entire Rubettes back catalog on CD what more do you need !!!!

Re: essential packing advise
 

Hi Again
We have timed so our stuff arrives two weeks after we do ( hopefully ) so think we will be ok with just essentials like clothes , references to enable us to get a house etc , pauls paperwork like his certificates , so he can hopefully get a job!!!!
The race will be on for us to actually find accomadation in the 2 weeks so our stuff had a home to go to !!
Joanne

Re: essential packing advise
 

You mentioned kids in the first post - we took one large hand luggage bag of toys for
each one, and it still wasn't enough - we took books, videos, games, gameboy,
colouring stuff (kids were 7, 5 and 18 months). When we went viewing houses they made
a bee line for bikes and yard toys (like they were deprived) when the container
arrived it was like Xmas! We rented a small cabin and got a new car (and had no tapes
to play, so there's something to consider). The cabin had a CD player and we had no
CD's (so maybe a couple of them) "jopaulss" <[email protected]> wrote in
message news:[email protected]...
    > Hi Again We have timed so our stuff arrives two weeks after we do ( hopefully ) so
    > think we will be ok with just essentials like clothes , references to enable us to
    > get a house etc , pauls paperwork like his certificates , so he can hopefully get a
    > job!!!! The race will be on for us to actually find accomadation in the 2 weeks so
    > our stuff had a home to go to !! Joanne
    >
    >
    >
    > --

Hi everyone,
:big grin: Thanks for all your ideas.
I can see we're going to need that extra 60kg baggage allowance for games, toys, and music. I take it that kids get the 20kg allowance too. Anyone know??????? We were just saying the other day that we probably wouldn't need to take too many games and toys as there will be plenty of other things to see and do, guess we were wrong. It must be like having all your birthdays at once when the container finally arrives.

Thanks again.

Any other good ideas gratefully received.

Re: essential packing advise
 

If you're flying Singapore Airlines or Quantas you can pre-book double baggage allowance as a one-way migrant. Not sure about other airlines. It's worth having. We are a family of 5, so got 200kg allowance. Weigh all your luggage on the bathroom scales so you know how the weight is going. We were under by 25kg so could have taken two more bags but I didn't want to trust the bathroom scales - as it turned out they weren't out by much.

We packed all my son's playstation games (in a wallet without the cases) and bought a new PS2 on arrival. We ought to have packed a few CD's (as mentioned above) as we have no CD's to put in the 7 CD stacker in the new car!

I wish that we'd packed the hot water bottles and a blanket or two! It's really cold here, the houses just aren't geared up for winter.

Re: essential packing advise
 

Just a quick note about baggage allowances - if you have an under 2 for which you haven't paid for a seat they don't get any baggage allowance.
We found that when we went in May for a look around Brisbane half the stuff we took was for our 11 month old. :rolleyes:
Regards
Paul, Annie & Jack

Re: essential packing advise
 

Worth keeping in mind that the price of a child's seat (with included 20 or 40kg
baggage allowance) is probably cheaper than the cost of shipping the 20-40kg stuff,
*and* you don't have to spend 24+ hours with the baby on your lap!!!

There's no problem with paying a child's fare and having a seat booked for a 2mth old
if you want to. And I've found with the smaller babies, they find sleeping on the
seat (where they can curl up next to a parent's legs) more comforting than being 'on
their own' in a skycot. LJ

kango_jack wrote:

    > Just a quick note about baggage allowances - if you have an under 2 for which you
    > haven't paid for a seat they don't get any baggage allowance. We found that when we
    > went in May for a look around Brisbane half the stuff we took was for our 11 month
    > old. :rolleyes: Regards Paul, Annie & Jack
    >
    > --