necroscope157

Hiya Paul & Lynne here

Planning a move over December to Kapiti coast, and was told by other expat members to bring our furniture....now we were going to buy a new leather lounge suite and ship it over, but i was wondering which furniture to bring and which to buy new in NZ.....any ideas

cheers P&L:curse:

Wiz'n'Ton

Anything that cost you less than 500 quid, leave it behind and save on the container space. Furniture here is plentiful and relatively inexpensive, especially if you're buying with UK £'s.

If it is quality stuff, then yep - bring it with you.

Leather lounge suites abound here, so save the money and buy one once you're over. Use the container space to ship out a load of funky light shades - they sell for massive money here!

Good luck!

danny.f

Indeed.

mickey_d

bring it all

Maz

Take a good look at what you've got. If you have some pieces that you could do without, or that need replacing, and they might make the difference between a 20' or a 40' container, then leave them and save the money on the container.

Just my two cents' worth. (and what I wish we'd done! )

simonmarkellis

We were told by the packers not to bother with anything wicker as MAF will see it as an opportunity to open your container get it out to have a look and whilst they are doing that they'll get everything else out.

Dustybin

And the less wicker there is in the world the better!

necroscope157

Thankfully no wicker, not a drop....gonna try and save space on the container....hanks guys and dolls

P&L

whitesand

I'd say bring, bring, bring. You might get leather lounge suites here but they might not be the ones you want. Furniture here tends to be old-fashioned or very expensive. For example, IKEA-like furniture is difficult to obtain as birch and light-coloured wood is not popular here. However, if you're into the heavy traditional look then there is plenty of that.

Also, take care with new stuff as you are liable for duty on anything brand new and I know that some people have to pay lots in anything new they bring in.

whitesand

lots on anything

luvwelly

Don't know what sort you've got now but one of our beds was damaged in transit so we had to go out and buy a new one here...they seem to go for the wooden frame and separate mattress arrangement....and the UK type beds with a base with drawers etc seem few and far between.

I'd say bring everything unless you really can save loads on your container bill by cutting down...I think we had a 40ft one and it was not full so getting everything into a 20ft may be a worthwhile saving. It's probably not worth bringing something really grotty and clapped out if you know you will be replacing it in the short term. Maybe you could put the container savings towards the installation of an adequate heating system in your NZ property.

You may not need wardrobes as old and new houses here seem to have them built in.

I knew it would happen but wanted them anyway and had to pay tax on some new flatpack IKEA stuff we brought over unopened...I didn't see the point of assembling them to avoid the tax as they'd be vulnerable to damage in transit.
MAF cut the pine cones off my artificial Christmas tree which I'd also been warned about.

mickey_d

[QUOTE=luvwelly;5389467]You may not need wardrobes as old and new houses here seem to have them built in.QUOTE]

Everyone seems to say that, but when we were house hunting earlier this year only 4 of the 15 we looked at had built in wardrobes & our rental in Auckland didn't have any either.
Went into a furniture store recently to look for a wardrobef or our daughter, apparently they have loads in during the year but they are snapped up usually within days!!!! So maybe they aren't so rare

lardyl

Age of house/villa seems to dictate whether there are built-in cupboard spaces (most are not real wardrobes as they sometimes just have a rail and nothing else, some dont even have that - hence all the liners that sell in the DIY sheds) and probably whether the house was owned by a Pom who ripped them out/moved walls to accomodate "real" furniture - we have a massive pine 'drobe and it can only fit in the lounge as the ceilings are too low elsewhere - makes a nice cupboard there!
Personally I'd say bring it all - money's tight here and the packers, if they're any good, can get a suprising amount in a container (or you could opt for a high-cube as others seem to have done).