What do you wish you'd taken with you to NZ?
 

Hi all, new to this so please bear with me!
Hoping to move to Wellington soon :eek: so before I make the big move from the UK, thought I'd ask you expats what you wish you'd done before you left or taken with you to NZ?

Re: What do you wish you'd taken with you to NZ?
 

The usual answer seems to be "more money!' :)

Re: What do you wish you'd taken with you to NZ?
 

My furniture and my car

Re: What do you wish you'd taken with you to NZ?
 

I have no regrets with respect to my two international moves (Bermuda and Australia). I did what I thought was important and brought everything with me.

So the things I thought were important included visiting people and a couple of small UK mini breaks. And other than having a good spring clean and sort out, I brought everything I owned.

Re: What do you wish you'd taken with you to NZ?
 

Once we arrived and had to go and replace the 'tired' bits and bobs we thought were past it we realized we should have brought it all - some regular things can be expensive and not as good quality.

My advice is bring as much as you can and sort it out once here - for example stock up things such as much good quality bedding/linen/towels etc. Went to buy a full sheet set for out super king bed recently and anything of quality was around $500 where similar from somewhere like John Lewis would have been the equivalent of $150 to 200.

Re: What do you wish you'd taken with you to NZ?
 

A caravan, in fact a whole fleet of caravans.

A caravan that would cost you peanuts back home go for $20k+ here.

Re: What do you wish you'd taken with you to NZ?
 

We bought as much as we could in the container. As previous post, bedding including UK duvets as NZ are different sizes. John Lewis and Debenhams will post to NZ.

What would I bring if I did the move again ..... TCP, toiletries, paint and my Mum.

Re: What do you wish you'd taken with you to NZ?
 

:blink: http://www.cosgan.de/images/smilie/konfus/n065.gif

I'm almost too scared to ask what you consider a full sheet set. Even luxury, Egyptian cotton sheets from John Lewis to fit a Super Kingsize are only around $60 each.

Re: What do you wish you'd taken with you to NZ?
 

Take furniture - coffee table, bedside tables, dining table, entertainment unit, chests of draws, display cabinets etc. When it comes to NZ one of three things will happen with furniture:

1. You'll cry at how much it is and buy it anyway if you can afford it. Even the basics cost hundreds and anything up from that will run into high hundreds/ early thousands if lucky.

2. Buy something cheap and very sh1t to the point it looks awful and won't fit together properly.

3. Buy second hand from car boot sales/garage sale and do it up yourself which will involve buying or borrowing tools and having the skills to do so.

So, yes bring the lot!

Re: What do you wish you'd taken with you to NZ?
 

Yep - same quality but four or five times the price. Hence when we go back in June to see the family travelling out with empty suitcases but will make sure they aren't on the way back;)

Re: What do you wish you'd taken with you to NZ?
 

Are you allowed to bring paint?

Re: What do you wish you'd taken with you to NZ?
 

I have taken to stocking up on the best quality egyptian cotton towels and homeware stuff when M&S has one of their regular 20% off sales - they ship for free over $50 and as long as you keep the order around $100 you won't get stung for import taxes / GST (yet)

There's nothing even remotely comparable here and therefore I can justify buying the best that M&S has to offer because I would pay at least the same for dubious quality things from Briscoes and Farmers and they don't have anything like as much choice.

Re: What do you wish you'd taken with you to NZ?
 

Bo - they don't ship from the UK site anymore you have to use the NZ one, just in case you didn't know

Re: What do you wish you'd taken with you to NZ?
 

Yeah I have used the new one, no problems and still get the same offers.

Re: What do you wish you'd taken with you to NZ?
 

I'd be doing the same. I'd intended to buy a whole load of new bedding anyway but will buy even more than planned now. Thanks for posting the warning.