gags

Those of you that have left and whisked yourselves to the other side of the world, what was the essentials that you packed in that suitcase. The suitcase that was the first piece of luggage and items of your old life to land with you in nz? I'm not talking about pants and socks or Mr Snuggles the bear, I mean other maybe not so obvious things to pack that you were so glad you did.

Or are you someone that is about to leave and has thought alot about this and have some great tips on what to pack?

concretepump

hi when we went we had four suitcase,s one had a blowup double bed cover and two pillows,

gags

Well thats great because I didnit even think of that. Other peoples beds and me don't get on much either

Mgee

Have been wondering about the same thing lately.

We plan to move into a serviced apartment for a couple of weeks until we find a decent rental and then plan to hire some furniture, a tv and whiteware if needed until the container arrives. Will probably buy a bed because it can be used as a guest bed later. Bedding was something I hadn't thought about -might be worth it to take a down duvet with us, especially when we're moving during the NZ autumn. I think I'll take some kitchen things like a couple of decent kitchen knives and a moka express coffee pot, but for other basic stuff I think a couple of cheap plates etc from the supermarket will have to do until our own stuff arrives. You can always donate the cheap stuff to a charity when you get your own.

A torch, a tin opener, a bottle opener, scissors maybe?
More ideas would be great!

pixi-dust

As you're most likely going to stay in a rental or somewhere to begin with, or even if you buy a house straight away, you won't have your container. Ours didn't arrive until 12 weeks after we moved into our house. I packed one full set of bed linen - I am a right fussy bore when it comes to bed linen. It was something that smelt of home and was comforting! I was so glad I did, even if at the time it did take up some room.
Mulitplugs with uk sockets and an NZ plug.

shelloid

yeah this is something we have been pondering too.

We want to take one of our laptops with us, but not sure if hand luggage or the hold. It's a knackered one anyway, so wouldn't be too fussed if it got damaged.
We're also tempted with a kitchen knife, a pizza tray (yes we make our own pizzas a lot!) and our garlic twist (fancy version of a garlic crusher). Oh and my measruing cups / spoons.

Other thoughts were on all the info we submitted for our ITA, as it's likely that we'll only get WTR as I cannot register with the pharmac council without having work experience. Then if we wait ages to get our container we should hopefully have sufficient documents when we try to go for our PR.

Did think about bedding, but I'd rather have the extra room for clothes (and our bedding is getting knackered).

That's all we had thought of but I'm sure there'll be more when we actually sit down and think about it properly.

Wooly_Cow

I took my Swiss Army Knife which was great.

- a note book with all the telephone numbers, account numbers, passport details written in it (of course DONT loose it)

- copy of passport, drivign licence, and other documents (in case you loose these)

- laptop (of course) with UK power adaptor

but as I always say the only three things you really need when you travel are passport (and visa), money and your ticket....these days with e ticket you don't really need the ticket.

Stoof

Paperwork: birth certs, nat insurance, marriage cert, passports, driving licence, ITA etc etc - plus photocopies (x3) and kept separately
More paperwork: medical and dental histories incl immunisations etc for kids
Even more paperwork: stuff showing accounts closed, insurances finalised, bills paid up, etc
And some more: bank details, online banking stuff, cheque books etc, inland revenue paperwork
Notebook/pens to keep all new stuff/info in one place (new phone numbers, broadband details, bank stuff etc etc)
Contact details for everyone you dealt with in the uk - just in case (don't laugh about me being OCD - this has actually been really helpful as a couple of places 'lost' our final payments, and we've also had a refund cheque too!)
Contact details for friends and family

Then

Bedlinen
kids toys and stuff to make somewhere 'homely and familiar' for them
ipod and speakers
laptop
phones/chargers
couple of 4 way extensions (but buy 'proper' earthed adaptor here, or stick nz plug on end)
first aid kit and any 'usual' meds (calpol etc until we found our feet)

and a load of other stuff i can't remember now... i DID however divvy everything up between all our bags, so if one of them got lost, we didn't lose all one persons clothes, or all our electricals etc... i also wrote a list of what was in each bag, and kept this separately, so when we got here we knew straightaway which of the HUGE bags we needed to dig into to find xy and z

HTH

gags

Wow Stoof, impressed!! Not ocd atall
Seriously though, all these tips are really great and I will be making notes of all the above ready to get packed and sorted away when the times comes.

Any other ideas would be great if indeed there are any left!

MnB

Fender electric guitar (neck in one case, body in another) guitar pedal, soft gig case, i-pod docking station, Hp mini notebook (in hand luggage). Important documents as Stoof did, small notebook with all contact details friends, family, UK utilities, bank etc.
Insect repellant & factor 30 sun cream.....still got a pink neck tho!
Tea bags - declared on customs form.
Happy packing!! ...when are you leaving UK? (been out of the loop for a few days so sorry if you've posted this somewhere else!)
B x

gags

Happy packing!! ...when are you leaving UK? (been out of the loop for a few days so sorry if you've posted this somewhere else!)
B x[/QUOTE]

end of summer here. See you are there already. Packing correctly is all old hat for you now. Hope you get settled in real quick. I bet it all feels like a bit of a dream at the mo. Loads of good luck to yous