Some airlines will allow you more baggage allowance if you can prove you're emigrating.

Thanks Kija, good to know.

I got double baggage with Emirates 40kg I had to scan and email my PR Blue sticker

Wow! So much info. yes, of course we should hire a car initially Hadn't thought of that but makes much more sense than trying to get food delivered.

About kids car seats one of the PP mentions. What is the legal requirement? Is it height / age / weight dependent?

next question: My husband has coeliac disease and my middle son is dairy intolerant. How easy is it to find food without those ingredients? Would I have to go somewhere in particular or is there a section in the supermarket aisle like Tesco's 'Free From' range? Also, what is their food labelling like? Do they have a list of allergy advice underneath the ingredients like they do here?

Finally (for now lol) if you get a taxi from the airport to a hotel in the centre, what do we do about car seats then?

Thanks for all the answers, you've been v. helpful

Natalie

If you're emigrating and have an unstamped visa they allow double baggage, 40kg each. I made sure I rang them and emailed them for confirmation.

It was a nice surprise, lovely airline too.

When your packers come they will pack away your things into boxes & wrap the larger stuff. They will be SWIFT ! Put your packed suitcases into your car or a safe place. Make sure your tickets and passports are not in a drawer that will be packed into a box ! (a previous poster on BE put NZ$ 5,000 into a shoe box and left it in the bottom of the wardrobe....it got packed ! He had to beg and borrow a couple of thousand pounds the day before he left as 'float' for his arrival whilst waiting for his crate and the money to come. Yeah this caused no end of worry regarding customs ! All was well in the end for him though) If your childrens' pyjamas, favourite toy etc are left in their bed on move day, they will be packed & won't be seen for weeks and weeks whilst in transit. Our movers packed us one day and left us enough china and cutlery for one day then returned the next day to finish off and pack the boxes etc into the ships container. They wrapped the bed base and put the matress back on the base so we could sleep the last night. Could just sense the sound of paper as I turned over in the night. You mean I slept on that last night ? Um, sorta !

Hi before we moved our house sold sooner than we hoped, we bought our daughter a flat and stayed there until it was time to leave. We were lucky enough to have a cousin here in NZ who viewed some rentals for us while we were in uk, so the keys were ready to collect a day after we arrived. This was fantastic i would view places online and send her an email, she would advice me of the area ie dont go there or thats worth a look kind of thing. She did this for weeks until she found something nice, which was a 3 bed brand new town house $350 rent per wk. Was fab i loved it. We rented for 6mth and then bought our own place.

Because we were sharing a container it left a few weeks after us. We left Nov and were told container would arrive feb it actually arrived in Jan. Any way we didnt have as much as a fork and the house was un-furnished. People i met at work offered me a tv and table and chairs and bits and bobs. Kiwis are like that. Like everyone else has said we went to warehouse which btw is pretty naff but you can get cheap essentials to tide you over. Briscos is also great which i still love to this day. Middle of the road quality at a good price just go when the sales are on which is all the time. We were advised not to bring large items which we didnt except tv, computers and some electrical stuff. We sold the lot back in uk (big mistake) we had to buy sofa bed, x3 beds furniture, fridge, washing machine ie a front loader which was mega expensive 3x price in uk but i wasnt having a top loader. Any way within a week of arriving we had spent nearly 20k. I would have been cheaper shipping my full house. You live and learn. You will be suprised how quick you get by and find your way around.