Bo-Jangles

Exactly why some people need to get some sense of perspective qssue.

All I'm saying is if you have a finite space and weight limit in your suitcase, you need to rationalise what goes in and what does not.. if every ounce is at a premium you need to figure out whether you fill it with diamonds or with rocks.

If it were an antartic expedition where there are no shops I could understand the panic and a wooden spoon would I am sure be most valuable, but this is new Zealand and on the scale of precious to worthless then wooden spoons would be the last things I would pack because if all else fails we do actually have plenty of sticks.

Do you want to pack wooden spoons or treasured photos of your granny? Consider the replaceable versus irreplacable and the value of things to you. Would you be devastated if you didn't have a wooden spoon, would your kids lives be ruined if they didn't have pampers? Do you need clothes for interviews or are you gonna be camping in the stix for a while? You wouldn't want to be carting coals halfway around the world to Newcastle.

Snap Shot

I wish more people would realise this, what I've underlined. Most people are fed up that they've paid out money hand over fist prior to arriving in NZ. There was really no money for an investment purchase like a smart business suit for interviews on arrival in NZ.

We packed our interview clothes in our suitcases along with all our other stuff as we needed to look for work on arrival in NZ.

(Oh, and for the avoidance of doubt, all our furniture etc was in a container en route to NZ)

j19fmm

I have a container full of stuff coming, a big family here (yup I'm lucky) and no my wooden spoon isn't valuable but it certainly didn't take up a lot of room, it makes me smile ...and that at the moment is invaluable

Pinksar

Thanks guys - all makes perfect sense re clothing. I'm not worried about utensils or other replaceable items as I know I can buy there if I need to - like has been said, its not Outer Mongolia! I was purely wondering if anyone had any cunning tips - I was planning on treating it like holiday packing with a few items I couldn't leave to the packers - jewellery etc. so looks like I'm on the right track

One last thing - I've been told by our packers that it causes problems packing alcohol and food stuffs. Whilst I know we can get it there, my hubby was given a litre bottle of JD recently and he ideally doesn't want to leave it here, and I have a similar situation with some half drunk bottles of good quality vodka . Things like ground coffee and pods for my machine & tea bags etc, whilst again I'm more than happy to buy there I have quite a large supply I'm loathe to leave - can we bring that or are my packers just scaring us?

Snap Shot

Um, dunno. Imagine the smell and the waste if the booze bottles got broken in transit. Albeit, other fragile things made of glass etc should arrive in tact.

I'm surprised/impressed regarding the range of vodka there is for sale in the liquor stores, in Wanganui at least. No use to me, I'm not a fan of vodka. If the value of the booze is going to be prohibitively expensive to replace in NZ, you might as well bring what you've got.

If the shippers will take it then it's kind of between you and customs and/or MAF when you get to the other side.

Stormer999

I brought a dozen bottles of spirits and packers PSS packed them no problems. Container arrived with no inspection.

kazandav

We were told that if you take food over they are more likely to inspect your container . Don't know if this is true or not but I was going to take some decaf tea bags and they advised me against it so I didn't.

MrsFychan

can't remember if you have kids, but we bought the Wii over on the plane (not the balance board though). We bought those trousers with pockets in, cargo pants and filled them out with controllers and cables. wore clothes and coats with pockets and filled them. did mean a lot of unpacking and repacking pockets at the scanners but managed to bring quite a lot of stuff doing that

Pinksar

Haha Mrs Fychan that made me laugh as imagined you with clothes on top of clothes and pockets rammed with stuff! No kids so we don't have to worry about that - the only thing I want to take is my kindle that'll keep me happy for the flight - I could read day and night if I was able to!

I'm going to ask my packers about alcohol as I'd like to be able to take it - I'm to worried about food etc. just my coffee pods as no one I know here uses them so they'd be thrown away and I hate waste.

Got our e-tickets this morning so its all very real now - we've sorted suit asse and hand luggage so now just a case of sorting what we take.

Thanks for everybody's comments and help. I adore this forum and hope when we are there I can help other people in the same position as us when needed.

Bo-Jangles

Don't know what machine you have but suggest you stock up on plenty of pods as finding them here can be problematic and expensive.

Pinksar

Ooh, thanks Bo-Jangles - I don't have to use pods luckily as managed to buy a refillable filter pod which you can just put ground coffee in to make drinks, which is really handy, just a bit more fiddly than pods, so will definitely look at stocking up.

I will check with the packers first though, as to whether I can take them, as don't want to get caught out by MAF or customs etc.!

Also - for information, I emailed Customs about the alcohol and they have said as long as they can see its for our own use (i.e. not 100 bottles!) and we have visas and have lived in the Uk for longer than 21 months, we would have to pay an import fee of approx. $47 to bring it in. Hopefully they've given me the correct info - my feeling is it may be less risky and cheaper to just buy it duty free on the way over!

MrsFychan

you would probably have to buy it on the final leg of the journey as if you buy it prior you may not get it pass the through customs as it will be over the 100ml ?

Pinksar

See - I knew it was a good idea to mention even the smallest thing on here! I hadn't thought of that - was hoping to buy some Clarins at Heathrow but it will fail the 100ml rule.... will have to wait till last stop, which is Sydney.

Thanks Mrs Fychan!

Bo-Jangles

Really? Does that rule still apply if you're flying straight through and staying airside / in transit?

MrsFychan

we had to throw away open coke cans and water in bottles as over the 100ml. also every check you had to get your stuff out and put it in the plastic bags and have them looked over think we lost some deordourant, tiresome tiresome tiresome