Happy Wanderers

If all goes to plan will be moving over mid to late May and be based near Auckland. N ow starting to sort out all our stuff. Understand from the forum that appliances are expensive out there (especially white goods). Do we take what we have from the UK and will they work if we simply swap plugs. Is it worth buying new here and shipping un-opened? Will this incur customs costs? What have you guys done?

Squidge

We brought everything over and swapped plugs. We had to get the TV tuned to a different frequency and buy a new Sat dish. If you bring in new items unopened you will incur duty, so buy new, open them even use them once and then ship. Hope this is of help.

pixi-dust

the things we took over work fine with plugs swapped. we did take over some brand new, wrapped things, they just went in the container like everything else so we didnt exactly say we had them - but there was no hassle at all. The removal guys even made up an ikea table for us which was way beyond the call of duty!

sky

Yes all electrical goods will work over here, older tv's will get a fab picture but absolutely no sound. When we first arrived, for a little while before we got Sky we had our big UK tv on for the picture and a little NZ portable switched on next to it for the sound lol.
Newer tv's I understand will work ok now.

Wiz'n'Ton

Just the info I need following all our stuff arriving yesterday. Off to buy a load of plugs at lunch-time, so cheers guys!

DVD's again! YAY

pixi-dust

I don't envy you the task ahead! I found I could do about 5 at a time ten my head went mush! Get a teeny screwdirver!

Jac&Adie

HI ya,

Can you let us know how to get the TV sorted out, ours is only a few years old, but will only get a couple of channels (fuzzy pictures only). Any advice is welcome.

Many thanks
Adie

sky

Maybe you're just in a bad signal area?
We had loads of channels in our own home just 4k up the road but here in this rental we are lucky to get two!
We watch a lot of dvds

lardyl

yep, our TV reception cr@p, five channels at most.
*Tip* for those with fairly modern TVs........if you want sound then you can do the manual re-tuning yourself, our Toshiba 36" widescreen CRT picked up the channels and the sound only when we manually scanned and set the "sys" (presumably PAL system) to "B/G" rather than the original UK setting.
*Another Tip* for all those chargers and low voltage adapters - take over a few 4-way patress boards (4 gang adapters) and simply change the plug at the end......easy one plug does several.

BTW, at a risk of hijacking the thread, does anyone know (i) where you can buy 15Amp socket outlets (for the 15A plug tops with deeper earth pins) and (ii) is any of the satellite output over here free-to-view (as I have a dish here from the last tenant!!)....?

Wiz'n'Ton

A quick update from us - changed plugs to the 2 ditribution boards we brought along, and it seems that it's operation success in that I have not electrocuted myself, and the DVD player works. Hoorah!

Plugs $4 a pop in The Warehouse tho. Anyone know anywhere cheaper? Oh, and is it correct that NZ plugs don't have fuses...???? Seems a bit dodgy, or are they all like that?

sky

Bunnings is good for cheap plugs, yes NZ plugs have no fuses ... in newer homes the fuse box is set to trip if there's a surge.

pixi-dust

5 channels!! you are blessed!! We have 2, 3 on a good day when the sun is shining in the right direction and the wind is blowing to the north type thing!

sky

pixi-dust

seriously!

sky

You made me laugh even more lol

We are the same we rarely watch tv now cos it's just too much hassle getting a channel