louiebluey

About to move to Auckland, NZ, from North Yorkshire, so thought I would make a start on sussing things out.
After living in UK for 3 years, we have decided to make the move to NZ for good with our 3 year old daughter.
My husband is a kiwi, but hasn't lived in NZ for 20 years and I'm half Australian and half English.
We're looking forward to getting settled in and a new life in NZ. Any suggestions for suburbs for rental, best place to buy a car and where to seek employment within FMCG.

dreadsoc

Hi Louie

Welcome to BE.
If you haven't already, I would recommend you check in on the New Zealand forum.
You will find it by clicking on the 'Forum Index' tab on the pink bar at the top of this page. Scroll down the list of countries and double click on New Zealand and you're in.
Most of us on here are from different parts of the BE world (I usually lurk in the Goa forum!) so the good folks posting on the NZ forum will be able to help you with all things you might need to or want to know.

All the very best with your plans and I hope you enjoy getting to know fellow expats in your new home to be

Dread - x

Jerseygirl

Hello...welcome to BE.

When are you hoping to move to NZ?

We have several excellent New Zealand Forums...I'm sure you'll enjoy being part of the community. There is also an Introductions thread...why don't you pop over there and introduce yourself?

Please take a few moments to read through the stickied threads that may be posted at the top of each forum's index page. It's also worth taking a look in the BE Wiki...you will find useful information about NZ in there.

We have a team of concierges who act as tour guides to help new members find their way around the many BE forums. You can find a list of their names at the bottom right hand side of this page.

If you have any problems or concerns please contact a moderator or admin. The mods for the NZ forums are Bevs and Am Loolah.

Please give me a shout is you need help with anything. Good luck.

Rosemary

Hello and a big welcome to BE.

Excellent information can be found in the BE Wiki, not forgetting the Living and Moving Abroad forum that will help you, another set of great help is the permanent threads at the TOP of each forum, they are very pertinent to that particular forum and makes sensible reading.

Moderators deal with any problems that arise such as inappropriate posts, spammers etc, you will find their names at the bottom right hand side of each forum's index in bold font.

Please contact me if I can give you any further help.

Rosemary

bakedbean

Hey louiebluey, welcome to BE . Do take a look in the NZ forums and post some questions on there. All the best with your plans.

BEVS

Kia Ora from New Zealand louiebluey.

Plenty of folks living in and around Auckland that will be happy to discuss suburbs with you.

Come on down and I'll look forward to seeing you on the main NZ forum.

Am Loolah

Hi louiebluey and welcome from me too!

I moved to NZ four and a half years ago with my Kiwi (ex) husband! (Long story!) He hadn't lived here for nearly 40 years, but we thought it a far better option for our children and a nicer lifestyle in general. Despite the setback (or not ) in my personal circumstances, the move has been fantastic on the whole and I have no regrets.

I'm not in Auckland though, but pop over to our NZ forum and ask away in there.

louiebluey

Hello! I am new to this forum and it looks a great place to get information and hopefully meet new friends when we get to NZ!!

My husband (a kiwi), my daughter and I (half English half Aussie) are finally heading back to live in NZ. We get back in a few weeks time. So I am frantically trying to get everything finalised in the UK! One big thing at the moment is the shipping. Can anyone recommend a good shipping company in the UK to sea freight our belongings? I have got a few that I am getting quotes from, but if anyone has any personal experience with really good shippers I would really like to know. Or maybe even ones not to use.

Thanks very much and maybe see you on the other side of the world!! Hopefully there will be some sun in the sky!! After 3 years in UK in Yorkshire, we are in need of a bit of heat on our skin!!

louiebluey

Hi all.
Bevs and Am Loolah, I put a post on the NZ forum today, but not sure why it isn't showing? Can you give me any tips? I thought I had put it under the Introduction, but maybe I didn't! Thanks very much.

BEVS

A shipping company spammer appeared & as you will see I've deleted the post & the user (s) are banned for playing at sock puppets. That's when you get two users posting together to try and push /advertise a product ont he open forums which is against the BE rules. It;s taken a bit of time to sort, so thank you for your patience.

As you are asking specific questions about NZ , I am moving this thread to the main NZ forum. You'll find your other post merged into this one.

HTH

Justcol

I made the move from Manchester about 3 years ago and shipped with Crown, they were excellent and very easy to deal with at both ends.

Auckland is a big place, I'm about 25 mins north at whangaparaoa. its still cose enough to get into the city for work or there are other areas
around the north shore that have fairly large centres of commerce (takapuna) the area around here is great to live in, safe for kids, lots of
open spaces and safe beaches, cheaper housing than down on the shore or in the city and friends tell me the schools are pretty good.

As for buying a car you can try places like U-Sell which is pretty good. LIke everywhere there are dealers but they tend to overprice.
another option is to have a look on trade me, theres always loads on there.

faye_h

Hi louiebluey,

Welcome! We also used Crown to ship our stuff over to Auckland and can't rate them enough. They weren't the cheapest shippers but we did manage to haggle down the price by a few hundred. We chose them because they were the only shipper based in both countries whereas all the others use a different company once your stuff arrives in NZ.

We live on the North Shore of Auckland and love it. We bought a book called where to live in Auckland (http://www.wheretoliveinauckland.co.nz/) before we came over here and it really helped to decide where we should focus our house search. I would recommend staying in temporary accomodation until you have time to figure out some of the areas. Don't rush into anything too quickly!

Good luck with the move

louiebluey

Thanks Guys to for all your replies. I will definitely try Crown shipping. I was told today that we can't get our shipment insured if we pack it ourselves - crazy!!

My husband is getting ready to leave in 2 weeks and then my daughter & I will follow 3 weeks later. We've got friends that hubby can stay with in Auckland, so hopefully he will be able to find a place before we get there!

Justcol

tell crown you've had a better quote from someone else and ask them if they can move at all on their price....works every time

johnht

If you did pack a box yourself and when it was opened things were found to be broken then the shipper would say it was your fault for not packing it properly and you would say it was their fault for not transporting it carefully. If the shipping co does everything and something is broken then it's obvious who is to blame.
I have one important recommendation about the packing though: make sure that you know what is in the boxes, more especially that the inventory of your boxes is comprehensive enough to be able to know where the things MAF will want to inspect are. For example some of our boxes were listed as containing 'tools' and it was only through looking at the sizes of the boxes that I could guess which contained the garden tools (e.g.fork) and which contained my car tools which MAF don't need to see. It might make things clearer if you look at the Unaccompanied baggage declaration form on http://www.customs.govt.nz/news/reso...s/default.aspx then you'll have an idea of the information you need to have to hand.

John.