Adventurer

Our family including 2 very little ones will be arriving shortly in Auckland area.
We will be needing to do a variety of things asap such as decide where to initially stay, find a car to get around, decide the most suitable area to live for us, find a property to buy etc.
I am sure many others have had a similar scenario.

What did you do when you first arrived re accommodation, type and where?

Was it successful?

What would you do differently, if anything, if you were doing it now with the knowledge and experience gained?

Any other tips and suggestions?

Radio Ham

The Spencer on Byron is a good hotel on the North Shore in Takapuna which provided us with a good base for our 3 week reccie last year, and is the place I'm staying for one week while I look to do the same as you in May.

Holiday homes are also popular to get a base to work from while you get sorted. See the sticky really useful thread at the top of this forum for links.

livewire

Hello again,

We stayed in a hotel in Auckland CBD and then a motel in Waiake Beach for our first week until the furnished rental we had booked in Torbay became available. We then had a 4 week wait until the container arrived and during that time we got the kids into school and found an unfurnished place.

It took us a long time to find somewhere to buy and in the end bought acreage to have a house built. So yes it was successful but it did take a long time to find somewhere to buy.

Would I do anything differently? I guess not, perhaps we could have headed out west in the first place instead of renting on the North Shore. But renting was definately a good option for us as it gave us time to find out what we wanted from a house in NZ (lots of space, double glazing and heating amongst other things). Which is why we decided to have one built as we couldn't find anything that suited.

Tips? Keep an open mind and give yourselves time to adjust. Always haggle on the price of something and keep doing your research after you arrive..

p.s. oh, watch out for the moving companies overcharging you on the MAF fees

Biddy

We booked a bach over the internet for our arrival - furnished, on the beach for $350 a week. We soon found a more permanent rental (unfurnished) -$270 pw - for when our furniture arrived.
Now have a piece of land that we may (or may not) build on! Please vote!

newkiwi

We stayed in a motel in Newmarket for four weeks until we found a place to rent. We did not have a car, but in hindsight I would have bought one sooner. You may want to hire a car for the first week or two, its much easier to get around.

We had bank accounts opened from overseas, first thing monday morning we went to the bank to collect the ATM cards and activate the account.

We also bought a pay as u go cell phone immediately so we had a NZ contact number to leave when looking for an apartment to rent.

Id say the only thing we would have done diff would have been to buy a car sooner.

Biddy

I bought car on my own recce before returning to UK and then coming back with family.
Bought UK phone and had it unblocked and then bought NZ sim card over internet - worked as soon as I got off the plane! Recommend - also potentially cheaper than waiting as they can be a bit pricey here.
Bank - we also sorted that from UK and activated on arrival - couldn't be easier.

P18PPS

Our destination was Auckland, job in the CBD...
We re-used an old phone, got it unblocked, bought a 2nd hand sim card over internet - like Biddy it worked the moment we got off the plane - cost about £10 to get the phone unblocked, £10 for the sim card - and except for a few unwanted calls for a girl called Caroline it has been fine.
We arrived early Wednesday morning, by lunchtime we'd activated our bank accounts - we were able to open them on the phone from the UK - National Bank - but needed to go in person to collect cheque books, cards etc - this was all there ready and waiting for us.
We then hired a car in the afternoon - just went to the tourist info bureau who were able to book it all there and then for us, the hire company then came and picked us up from the bureau to collect the car.
We were lucky in that we had accommodation booked and paid for by work for first 2 weeks - dedefinitely huge help. If you've not got this option, I'd say a good starting point is the CBD for a few days at least - it is great to get your bearings on foot.
Day 2 (Thursday) we bought cars - Grey Lynn has loads of 2nd hand car dealerships on the "K" Road. We then picked them up on the Saturday - we bought 2 from the same dealer and haggled loads. Things like insurance (which isn't mandatory), but you can just use yellow pages and get activated on the phone - exactly the same as in the UK.
We then got lost everywhere, drew up a shortlist of places to live by our "wish list" - close to CBD, good schools, close to beach etc; within a week we'd found a house to rent (unfurnished) - note we did see some pig ststies be prepared!!!. We then used DTR - white goods and furnishings rental company, and just got the bear minimum until the container arrived. We bought beds - haggled again and got them delivered the afternoon we received keys on the rental property.
There are lots of other little things that you may be used to at "home" such as internet connection, phones etc - worst case scenario do what the backpackers do - go to internet cafes/cheap phone centres to do you calls etc - there are alternative options for most things.

I'd say that there is a huge stress to get everything perfect in a really short space of time - this is something I'd do differently next time.... don't stress if the kids aren't in school within a week of arriving, don't stress if you can't immediately find a house to rent etc etc - yes it is costly, BUT you have travelled around the other side of the world to a new country and no doubt spent £1000s doing so, so a few extra days in a motel on the credit cards aint going to make a huge difference in the bigger picture!

Good luck.

bookemjano

We booked a furnished villa for the first two weeks, as near to the airport as we could get because the last thing we wanted to do was come off that flight and have an hour's drive. The cabbie we got at the airport took us to the nearest dairy for us to fill up on essentials so we could put the kettle on as soon as we got in, then we hired a car next day and went off to find a rental in our chosen area. We were lucky, we knew exactly where we wanted to live, so it made it much easier. We had the rental sorted within two days then we had two weeks to get furniture bought and delivered. It worked out very well for us - I'm pretty sure we got the holiday villa off www.holidayhomes.co.nz, most of them seem really good quality.

I don't think we'd have done anything differently really. We seem to have had it pretty good so far. The only tip I could give is get those first two weeks accommodation booked before you come to give yourself time to recuperate off the flight and relax in a homestyle setting in between all the running around. Your kids will probably do better in a house than a motel I would have thought, particularly if you get one with a decent garden.

Good luck with it all.

Joshlin

we booked a holiday cottage for 1 month while we were still in the UK - used www.holidayhomes.co.nz - it was great, felt like a home, was fully furnished, close to all areas for exploration, cost $450 per week (3 bed)
we used the airport shuttle service to get us (and our masses of luggage) to the property - cost about $25
we walked into ASB on arrival and opened a bank account straight away, depositing cash we'd bought with us and walking out with cash cards
we hired a car for 2 weeks while we looked for a decent but cheap run around (got a 1996 Nissan Primera for $6500)
spent a couple of weeks relaxing / holidaying / digesting the property / jobs pages of the local paper.
registered with 2 letting agents (free), spent 2 days driving around, found a property for rent no probs. 3 bed, 2 living, double garage, kitchen/diner, laundry, garden & gardener $320 / wk
OH phoned a couple of people for jobs - went for informal discussions, secured a job within 3 days of starting to look
after about 3 weeks went looking at child care and got the children settled in part time to give them others to socialise with and us time to get everything sorted
wouldn't change anything - it all worked like a dream
Good luck
Vicki

theduke

I am currently in this position.

The company Iam goingto work for have put us upin a fully furnished apartmentin St Marys Bay at Victoria Park for 2 weeks gave me a loan of a works ute for as long as I want and told menot to come to work until I ahve sorted out my accomodation.

Well we have after much hard work found something good to rent, however our furniture doesn't arrive for another 4 weeks so we have decided to rent another fully furnished apartment for 3weeks after the work financed one is done and the new furnished one is near the new rented house which means kids can start back at school.

Oh and my work are seeking a coupleof good cars for us, and also sorted me out with my own personal banker, so now we have sorted out our bank accounts over here, only took us a week,lol.

Any any questions please ask.

Andy

Fireman Al

What line of work are you in for them to have sorted that out for you ?

Ali

theduke

I am a Quantity Surveyor, boring really

Paladin

To everyone that has responded to this thread so far..... THANK YOU!!!!

Your information has taken the edge of the stress levels of the "what the hell do we do when we arrive" scary scenario!!!! :scared:

Cheers everyone!!!

Dave

Adventurer

Yes.
Thanks everyone for what you have written so far.
Certainly clarifies the situation and shows it is not as daunting as we feared.
Please keep answering especialy with any additional tips and suggestions.
Sure this thread will help others who are coming to NZ.

theduke

Hi

This is the complex we will be renting from as of 6th March for 3weeks www.botany-apartments.co.nz , we are renting a fully furnished 2bed apartment until our gear arrives, which will be for 3 weeks. At $800pw and $60 cleaning fee, may be good just for a few weeks for someone unil the find somewhere, thoughit is 20mins from the CBD and about 45 in the rush hour.

The place we are staying in at the moment which is paid for by the company I am going to work for is in the Beamont Quarter of Victoria Park www.quintessentialnz.co.nz but it is $180per night hence we are not staying here.

Andy