Am Loolah

I keep going round in circles and wondered what you're all thinking for yourselves?

You leave with the essentials in suitcases. Clothes and paperwork.

Your worldy goods take 8-10 weeks to arrive.

Do you go for "Holiday" accommodation at $120-$150/ nite, (approx $1,000/week) not including linen? For the full 8-10 weeks prior to container?

Do you do the above for a couple of weeks and then go unfurnished and "camp" for 6 weeks before your furniture arrives?

Do you go part-furnished and buy the essentials whilst waiting, knowing you may well double up on some stuff?

We are from the "Bring Everything" camp as per advice on this site?!

So difficult. Friends who are 3 months ahead of us found furnished accommodation crap and expensive, and unfurnished for 8 weeks made them borderline depressives?

mazi

Knock on the aunt and uncle's door and ask to stay!

Am Loolah

2 adults, 4 kids and 2 Dobermans - sure they'll be thrilled!!!

Jacque

We found ourselves in this very situation when moving to NZ for a year, with two young children under 3 and it was tricky! We ended up packing as we normally would for a "holiday" for 10 weeks (with lots of extra toys!), rented furnished accommodation and then were fortunate enough to have a permanent rental when our goods could be finally offloaded.
Furnished accommodation can be expensive- but shop around and you will be rewarded on price. The alternative is to ship everything early, stay with relatives in the UK and then arrive at the same time as your worldly goods.

Am Loolah

Did you rent fully furnished for 10 weeks then? I'm beginning to think the expense is probably better than the stress of "camping" for the same time? It would appear there's so much stress of re-locating anyway, that why add to it?

We're a large (number not combined weight) family and so staying with rellies here wouldn't be an option!

Jude J

Phew, I'm glad we didn't bring stuff! I hadn't really thought of what you do whilst waiting. The Top 10 holiday parks are quite good, they have everything you need, linen washed once a week, kitchen well equiped. Not sure what it would cost for 10 weeks, expensive but maybe they do deals for long stays?

cottageinthesky

Agree with JudeJ - Top 10 holiday parks are basic but have everything you need - they will probably accommodate the dobermanns - who probably are your biggest problem! - if they sleep in the car - so you would need a suitable vehicle - I met an English couple with 2 irish wolfhounds who were staying in motels and the dogs were sleeping in the car - you're going to be so busy for the first weeks - everyone's going to be really tired at the end of the day, perhaps all you need is somewhere to crash - part of the adventure?

Ask for a discount - even a week will get a % off - try the "ok what discount will you give me for 2 weeks", "3 weeks", .... 10 weeks represents a *big* discount !! There isn't the volume here, so a 10 week booking is *massive*!!

cottageinthesky

There's always the local marae?

Jacque

We rented furnished but we did have it subsidized as my husband was in the Defence Force at the same time. The Holiday Parks sound like a viable option, but make sure you get a large cabin if you have more than two children, as some of them can be quite squashy!

Joshlin

we booked a holiday home for the first month through holidayhomes.co.nz, fully furnished, got a reduced rate, cost us $400 per week, power and a weekly clean (to a good standard!!) included.

The area was a little tired but the cottage was delightful and helped us feel really settled to start with.

Our container arrived 6 weeks after it left, fortunately we didn't leave the UK until 5 weeks after the container left (if that makes any sense - sorry, had a long few days!) so our stuff went into storage and then it was delivered directly to the rental. We organised it so that we had a weeks overlap between rental and holiday home which gave us the time to clean the rental and unpack our stuff before having to live in it!

We've also used holidayhomes for a holiday rental since being here and again we were very pleased with the property, it was as described, clean and tidy and well managed. the website is www.holidayhomes.co.nz

Vicki

Herm

I'd say don't worry and just 'hoof' it. Depends on what time of year you arrive of course and how flexible you are on accomodation but things will work out. When the 5 of us came out we booked into a motel at the beach and hit the real estate agents the following morning. They enentually came up with a 4 bed fully furnished at $240 a week and allowed us to rent on a 6 weekly basis.

Other people I've met went down the unfurnished route and had (and accepted) all sorts of offers from friendly neighbours on the loan of furniture et al......

Maybe we were just lucky - but maybe we all make our own luck - have faith and it will be alright on the night.

PS - Must admit though that when the container did turn up it was like Christmas, Birthdays, Everything all rolled into one - the whole family was so excited.

Once again - Good luck..

karonious

Can't really help Lools, as we are actually a retired couple still living in Brixton and huddling in front of the one bar electric fire - we just log on and make stuff up as we wait to shuffle off this mortal coil!
No seriously, we were selective in what we shipped. A lot of our furniture was old and tired - we refused to buy expensive stuff as we moved with the RAF so often that it would have been ruined with the frequent removals. So when we arrived, we found an unfurnished rental and started replacing our furniture. I wanted things that would be in keeping and fit this scale of house - I am glad we sold our old lounge furniture as it would have dominated the room here. We made a mistake buying Melissa's bed though - it is a bunk with a double bed settee on the bottom - far, far too big for the room but she loves it so it can stay for the moment.
see - no help whatsoever!
Karen B

CarolR

Holiday homes are not a bad thing - I have a home in a residential suburb which is sometimes let to Brits coming to Christchurch. I rent this one out at $85.00 nightly per family. This equates to $595.00 weekly which on a good day is just over 200 pounds a week. Now if you consider that is fully furnished with good quality furnishings, bedding , telephone and power. I don't actually think that is too bad a deal really. I would be interested on peoples opinions on this as I was quite worried to hear people comments on other threads about the expense and cost for these types of properties. Plus owners are not guaranteed a full year of bookings and have all the maintenance costs of a home, wear and tear of the furniture, rates, water etc etc.

A motel would charge you by the person and you would not get the home comforts and garden etc. Any comments would be interesting - thanks

http://www.holidayhouses.co.nz/properties/7745.asp

pixi-dust

we rented a furnished cottage for 2 weeks when we first arrived ( it took the dog and cats so that was a huge bonus) after that we moved into our house - completely unfurnished and bare. Our container was delayed as well. But people here were so lovely. The parents of the previous owners lent us a bed, a table and an armchair. We got a wee table and 2 chairs and that was it for blooming weeks! Honest though, it was sort of fun most of the time, but I was really happy when the container arrived.

As an aside - dunno if Im allowed to say this so mods delete it if I'm not - but from march we will have a furnished cottage that will allow animals with the use of a car that we can rent out on short term to new folk arriving. ( up north) if anyone is interested let me know.

Am Loolah

Thanks for all your comments, sadly I'm not making much progress. Most are $1,000/week for fully furnished, but I'm sure would negotiate for say 6-8 weeks. But they are all a flat no for the dogs - which I understand - but I'm getting a bit worried about it now. I don't think hubby will go for the holiday park option as I mentioned doing the campervan thing again and putting the dogs in kennels and that was met with a "You're on your own there!"

I think it may have to be the dogs in kennels there until we hit the ground running and fidn an unfurnished, longer term, that'll accept them.

Carol, $85 per night for a property that sleeps 6 (I think) seems pretty reasonable. The 4 beds we've looked at in Tauranga area are $120 - 150 per night. We used to holiday let a home here and it's true you have to cost in the bills, wear & tear, laundry and cleaning.