grimm

Thanks to everyone who gave us advice on shipping the dogs to Auckland.

We're also wondering if it's worth taking stuff with us like sofa, dishwasher etc.
My agent told us that the rentals will be unfurnished and that it's worth taking all our stuff over with us, excluding soft furniture.
What are/have people taken with them and not?
Many Thanx
The Grims

SarahB

My advice is to take as much as you can....BUT... Remember that when you get to NZ and rent an unfurnished house you will need basic stuff to be able to live there.....like Kitchen equipment, even down to knives and forks, plates, mugs, glasses etc.....what are you going to sit on? Going to buy a chair each? or a settee? You will need a bed,a warm duvet, bed clothes and pillows... washing machine, fridge...the list goes on believe me....surprising how much basic stuff you need to survive. If you have small children do they need a highchair?...you really dont want to duplicate everything but you will need to buy stuff unless youre lucky enough to have somewhere to stay until your container arrives.

We didnt bring everything that we could have done and have found out the hard way.

pixi-dust

we're not there yet, so I can only really say what we're going to do. But it's take everything (with a clear out before we leave!) We like our things and think that we'll like to have something with us thats just ours. when everything else will seem so new and different.

Dappadee

We are only taking clothes, CD's, DVD's and some bits and pieces like knives, forks, plates etc…. All the rest of our furniture and white goods will remain in our house here, which we are renting out.

grimm

once again, cheers for the good advice!
Was thinking of buying a new leather sofa from DFS on sale?
lol
need to contact some shipping agencies now, and you guessed it any ideas please?

Oh I'm such hard work

pixi-dust

we got 4 companies round to the house to give us quotes. One was a complete rip off - we were disappoined as we had used them twice in this country and they had been brilliant - the others were much of a likeness - we eventually decided on Crown - our reasons were that their insurance was good (not cheap but good) and they do the job from start to finish as they have their own carriers in NZ, and they were a little felxible on the price. They didn't actually give us the lowest quote but they did give us the most confidence.

sandybob

We are at that stage too, a bit of advice we have found useful to help thin things out is, what customs? Quarantine will not let you bring in. We have just started looking into it and it seems a bit of a mine field. We have also found some advice someone gave on this forum very useful, which was rather renting a house when you first get out there, rent a holiday apartment which is fully kitted out. we have done that and found many people have an apartment or Lodge on farms/lifestyle plots. They also give you a cheaper rate if you are renting for a while. Our one for example is $80 per night for all 3 of us all inc. it even has a hot tub.
I hope this helps and has give you some ideas
Regards Bob.

lapsed kiwi

I havebeen looking into this recently and have found there's any amount of furnished holiday accommodation available for between $400-$700 pw in the Auckland area (even in the peak summer holidays). I'll post some links in the useful thread when I get around to it. We plan to do this for around 3 months while we're buying

scottish

When you are try www.trademe.co.nz but like a small version of a kiwi ebay. Tons of bargains to be had from second hand washing machines to trampolines

jjennings

We bought a two seater garden swing chair and put it in the lounge, complete with canopy. The landlord thought we were nut's but now our real stuff has arrived we have a very nice seat out on the deck. For the bed we bought a queensize inflatable with it's own built-in pump (very comfortable). It's now a spare in case of guests.

ex geordie

hi we only arrived with one suitcase between us bought a house here and started from sctatch. got a lovely leather suite in farmers in their sale and got some good second hand white goods out the local bay trader and bought any kitchen stuff and duvets etc from kmart it worked for us we went to kmart so often those first few weeks we ended up on first names with the lady on security.good luck with what ever you decide to do.

Dave and Lyns

Hi there!

What a good idea! I suppose when we get to that stage we might have thought about it was well, but all this advice is useful stuff

Cheers

Dave