teambwr47

Today we had our MAF inspection done at the NZvanlines warehouse in Auckland. Currently it seems inspections at point of home delivery are not being allowed due to the problems in the UK with Foot and Mouth and Bluetongue. I'm not sure if all inspections at delivery to a home are stopped but i know ours to a rural area was and theres a standing order in place with MAF.

Its a very common thing to read here 'Don't bring any basket ware or wicker furniture', 'don't bring your garden furniture or equipment' etc etc......

We have a large volume of stuff with us at a quoted 78cubicM's (nearly 400 boxes) and in it is wicker furniture, a large wicker box, full set of garden equipment, wicker baskets, Dysons, garden equipment the whole lot everything we owned in the UK.

MAF requested to inspect approx 40 items including some but not all the wicker/cane stuff, garden equipment, lawnmower and garden furniture. All this we were advised by some of the packers not to bother taking as 'they won't let it in the country mate!'

Well despite having what was descibed to me as 'one of the very experienced inspectors' all the stuff passed with no problems at all. Every single box that had been put aside was opened and checked and i was very pleased to hear my day long effort at cleaning a well used petrol lawnmower commented on as being a good job

The point behind this is i think many packers in the UK DO NOT actually know that things will get in here. The default speech is an easy option for a shipper where they just say "no you can't take that" when actually yes you can albeit with some items needed to be well cleaned and declared.

If i was to sit down and work out the money value of what we were told we shouldn't bring by the likes of PSS it would run to many thousands of pounds as its all stuff we will use here and therefore have had to replace. If we'd sold it before leaving we'd have got peanuts compared to its cost.

So.....BRING IT ALL.....you can always sell here what you don't need here.

RobClubley

Agreed

lardyl

yep and dont worry too muck (like we did) if they dont steam clean your stuff (as our movers failed to do!) as the MAF guy said that the surface dirt on the ladders was OK - he was looking for the soil squeezed into the missing feet from the ladders. They do simply take a (almost) random sample of your "interesting" items and leave the rest.
Still believe in "bring it all" and we regret leaving the couple of boxes there was no room for on the 20 footer!!

futurama

Our maf man helped me empty the container, looked in a few boxes, and was really helpful. He even cleaned my gardening shoes. I said dump them but he insisted on cleaning them..he cut the fir cones off our X mas garland. But it was only a few quid. He didnt even look at my wooden garden furniture as it was re stained before I brought it over.

So bring everything, but make sure you give it a cursory clean before hand

Ian

donnaf

Give it a good clean I say - we got fined for dirty bikes - they were the kids and were hardly used but obviously not clean enough!

lardyl

sounds like there are some inspectors that are more stringent than others - most seem reasonable though???

SarahB

We left so much wicker and garden stuff..... gave it to our tenants.... wish we had enquired more about it now.... we couldve done with it here.

I had a letter from MAF yesterday saying that a parcel sent to me from my mum has been stopped and opened. They have detained a "small piece of soap".... and I have to either give them permission to send it back to my mum at a cost of $76 to me.... or them destroy it...... now let me think! lol Grrrr!!!!

garryhg

why would they detain a bit of soap....what harm can that do...

CAN2NZ

I agree with one of the comments above that the movers do not give a totally accurate assessment of what can or can't or should and should not be expected to be allowed or taken.

We met an American family from Oregon after we arrived. They brought absolutely everything in a 40 foot container. They had all the garden things, the shot guns and rifles. They had no problem and they self packed.

I left my sprinklers and guns at home and wish I had brought them here as lawn sprinklers to rifles are more expensive here then we found at home. Even when buying a garden house, you have to buy and fit your own fittings to allow the hose to be attached to the tap.

Our christmas tree. bicycles and patio furniture were looked at in the garage when Crown brought them over. It was so routine and over very quickly with no hickups.

SarahB

It was from Lush.... so very smelly! They said the reason is that it has bits of plant in it. It was a birthday gift box from my brother to me. They didnt take what I thought was the obvious one to take..... they took one which is made from "Sodium Bicarb, Citric Acid, Cocoa Butter, Synthetic Musk, Ylang Ylang Oil and perfume". So if you want a Butterball Bath Ballistic buy it from Lush here as they wont allow it past quarantine.

garryhg

i defy any insect to still be living in a bar of lush soap,the smell from the shop nearly kills you when you walk past...my daughter loves that shop...gives me a mega headache after being in for about 5 minutes....thats a shame though if it was a pressy from your brother.....jacky

SarahB

I had visions of any poor dog falling over and whimpering over at the smell of the parcel..... it really was that strong. I got the rest of the items so its not a really big deal.... quite funny really. I never thought for one minute that it would get stopped as hes sent me stuff before and it got here OK.

Twirlywood

I agree bring what you want with you. We brought cane and wicker and I also have 2 twig balls.(like large balls of wool except made of twigs).I brought all my dream catchers as well.Also my witches on broom sticks which the MAF man did look at and said everything was fine we didn`t even clean our bikes and further to a comment on PSS I think it must depend on who you get as they were great with us and they were the ones who told us to take them and not to worry.
Dawn.