What should I take?
 

Hi Guys

When it comes to moving to NZ next year what items should I think about taking from the UK. I know some stuff is very expensive so any advice appreciated as to what is worth taking and what is better to buy once there?

Clothes for men and women
Pet supplies
Electrical items
Furniture

Cheers

Bex

Re: What should I take?
 

Bring everything including the kitchen sink!

Re: What should I take?
 

I have been studying what to bring for a while now, and I have come to the conclusion you should take everything, don't leave anything behind. We have bought a new washing machines as I hear the usual over in NZ is top loaders and front loaders are very expensive.

If you bring things over and you feel you don't want them anymore when you get out to NZ sell them on www.trademe.co.nz this is the equivalent of ebay.

Hope all goes well.

Re: What should I take?
 

Thanks for those replys.

As far as furniture goes, ours is pretty worn and was cheap in the first place so not sure its worth taking.

The main thing we have picked up on is the clothing. We're looking at stocking up on basics before we leave like underwear, jeans etc.

Also with our love of the outdoors - we use the north face, berghaus etc a lot so perhaps we should also have a spend up on this gear as well?

Re: What should I take?
 

I would still even bring your cheap stuff, unless you are really "cashed up" and want to go out and buy everything new.

Re: What should I take?
 

I wish we were cashed up but far from it. We have no house to sell and no savings (hopefully we'll be able to save a couple of grand before we leave).

Its more a case of not wanting to pay shipping fees for an old pair of settees that probably wouldn't survive the transit intact, and as for our £80 bed .... I think it will cost to ship the furniture than what its worth!

Clothing/shoe wise we'll definately bring everything we have.

Re: What should I take?
 

So when you get the shipping people over get them to give you two quotes, one for everything and then one with out the things you are not sure about.

Everything should survive thats why you take out insurence, if not then they will be the ones buying new ones :)

Our flat pack computer table survived and we didn't think that would.:thumbsup:

Re: What should I take?
 

Furniture and beds are very expensive here... we didn't bring our solid pine bed because it hadn't been treated and cost us a fortune for a new one :eek:

Re: What should I take?
 

I agree with jueinnz, get two quotes from the shipping company so you can see the difference in bringing your furniture or not. We did exactly that but we were fortunate enough to buy new out here. It depends where you go but we had some good deals.

If you are thinking about bringing a cat/dog this is very expensive. We have 2 cats and it cost us almost £2000 to bring them over.

Clothes are not cheap here so bring what you can.

Good luck and save as much as you can before coming over.

Re: What should I take?
 

What are you refering to when you talk about Pet supplies? i can't think what you would need that is hard to get over here? we have great pet shops?

Re: What should I take?
 

I found most consumer electronics/white goods to be the same or cheaper in NZ. If you have some top-end appliances you may want to bring them though.

I wouldn't bother with a TV, buy one in NZ so you can get the tuner for NZ tv, again LCDs are cheaper there, especially from somewhere like JB HiFi.

Frontloaders are readily available, and Fisher & Paykel are one of the best brands around.

http://www.bondandbond.co.nz/applian...6-c196-p1.html
http://www.lvmartin.co.nz/public/pro...vel1code=L1LAU

And remember that you can generally barter the price down in many shops by offering cash, price matching etc, sometimes by quite a lot. (10-20%)

Re: What should I take?
 

Hate to disagree but I seriously doubt that price for price you will get a better deal in the standard high street electrical shops in NZ (even with a discount) that you can online in the UK. Of course your warranty is no good but that's a chance you can take especially with decent brands.

As far as front loading machines go, yes there are some but the range is way smaller and if you try to compare like with like you will fail as most of the decent brands, eg Bosch are under-specced here - just look at the models and check the spin speeds. If you can buy them at european specs then I reckon they will be pretty expensive. Of course you might not need 1600 spin as drying weather is pretty good but then it does help when you need to save the $$$ on using a clothes dryer in those wet spells....

F&P are OK but not great, I know as I take them apart for a living after they have caught fire. Some of their appliances are poor and there are some really bad chinese small electricals available, for example from the big red shed - trust me there are real death traps out there and lots of them have been sold. Odd ones have cuaght fire and some are just waiting to do so - if I can buy a fan heater with a thermostat for less then $10 what good is it going to be??

As far as "High end" goes, then there is far less choice here and the prices are higher - there is less competition in the marketplace, most of what JB sells is reasonable value but it ain't high end stuff. Try buying good hi-fi or getting it serviced here been ther done that.......you'll do a lot better in the UK, in store or online.

My UK specced Toshiba TV will out perform and probably outlast almost any LCD on ordinary boradcast TV at the sub $5000 level so why bother? Might look good but is it good value? Plus if you have a freeview UHF or Sat box then you have no need for a new TV, your UK one will work fine.

Eg on super sale at LV Martin:
Currys:
faster speed lower capacity, erm £80-100 cheaper in the UK ........ no brainer......
and:
Zanussi is a better machine IMHO, having dealt with fire damaged appliances from both manufacturers and the manufacturers themselves in the UK, and its over $250 cheaper.......go figure.....

Re: What should I take?
 

If a lot of your stuff is pretty worn out you won't mind buying secondhand will you? There are loads of places to buy good secondhand stuff and as someone said there is trademe and the local papers. I wouldn't bring much if I were you.

Re: What should I take?
 

Here, see if you can get this machine in NZ

Bosch WAE32464GB
Exxcel 1600 Washing Machine

very much like the one we brought over. built like a brick outhouse and washes a dream......touch wood......

From what I heard in the trade before we left the LG machines were pretty damn good:

for the $300 more than the 8kg straight F&P from LV Martin, tempting....
of course the LG with similar specs to the F&P is still cheaper....LG F1222TD5 SILVER 1200 Spin Silver at £450 compared with $1500......again a no brainer.....
but we fought shy of one as we were not sure we could get it serviced easily here - BSH are here though and very helpful, that's the service arm of Bosch, Siemens, Neff, etc

Re: What should I take?
 

JB are pretty good for TV's, they have all the high end ones available, pretty much anything from Pioneer, Panasonic, Sony, Samsung etc which are all considered to be the best. B&O, Loewe etc are probably going to be expensive but that's just style over substance with the top Pioneer Kuro displays out performing them easily.

I sold both my TV's before migrating, one was a 4yo 42" Plasma which I managed to get £300 for (paid £3000 :( ) and the other was a 3 month old 32" Panasonic that I paid £620 for, which I sold for £450. The plasma I wanted to get rid of anyway as it wasn't HD. But the same LCD in NZ was selling for $1199 so it was a no-brainer really, especially as I was shipping by the cu.ft rather than a container load.

Some more washers here :

http://www.autel.co.nz/afawcs0120689...nt-Loader.html