nero

We are in a quandary about where to stay before our stuff arrives in Auckland. We are trying to get a flat in Quest apartments (which are holiday type flats but they dont have anything yet!

What have /are other people doing?

dlmckay

We ended up staying in a rental with borrowed crockery, no furniture, but new mattresses from the store (we left ours behind).

Was quite funny to walk in the house with the posh office clothes on and into a house with no furniture!

I suggest you go for that unfurnished rental and either hire furniture or buy cheap from second hand stores or TradeMe.

Check this thread out http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=461439 for rental firms.

hazeandsteve

We're in a furnished rental for another week or two, then the house we bought is ours.
The standard of stuff in this "quite expensive for Taupo" rental is attrocious. I'd say if you're not bringing it, but new ASP, and if it's on the way, the local trader, auctions, or supermarket noticeboards are usually cheaper than trade me.
We did, however, get a bargain Fridge freezer from Trade me, but two of the three times we used it, even though we were winner swe didn't meet the reserve price and had to use the fixed price offer.
Anyway, I digress. It is worth looking at furnished if everything is on the way, but you ,may be uncomfy for a while.
Best of luck...

sarahw

We stayed centrally for a week here http://www.questcintra.co.nz and found an unfurnished rental place to take a few days later. We then went straight to Harvey Norman to buy a bed and a sofa, Briscoes to buy cheap crockery and cutlery set and asked the landlady to provide a few things (fridge and table). We then went away for a long weekend and moved in when we got back and had everything delivered the same day. A bit hectic but it worked for us (just!)

P2L

We stayed in a motel for the first 3 weeks, paid for by Kev's new company and then went into an unfurnished rental.

We have a garden table and chairs and 3 sofas loaned to us by a work colleague ( 2 oil filled rads too!!) and a portable TV lent to us by another expat.

I bought cutlery etc to keep us going and use a ice cream tub as a mixing bowl We bought new beds anyway cos we wnated bigger ones for the kids so we have more room to put up visitors

My advice to you would be, if possible, let your container leave before you by a week or so, have a good holiday on the way over and then go into a hoilday rental when you get here. Only then move into your new home or unfurnished rental

simonmarkellis

Big dilema, for us, all the furnished rentals don't appear to be in the area we want to stay in. So unfurnished looks the best option with renting furniture. What we're probably going to do is rent unfurnished before we leave the UK and either stay in a hotel/motel or holiday home for the very first few days we land, to get our bearings. Then organise rental of essentials to be delivered and buy beds and mattresses for delivery once we get there and have gotten over the flight and picked up the rental car.

donnaf

We stayed in a short term furnished (expensive) rental for 8 weeks, it was gorgeous and we were glad we did as it eased us into NZ life without any trauma regarding living. We planned to rent medium term but bought a house after being here about 10 days. We had a nightmare with the container which came 6 weeks after we moved into our house, but we were fortunate enough to have expats around us who loaned us all kinds. We bought a sofa bed and used that as a sofa, needed some new things anyway like a TV, DVD, dining room table and rented a washer / dryer. We just camped out then until the rest of our stuff arrived.

The NZ Yellow Pages have a section for rental furniture if you can get that online?

lardyl

which side of the city do you want to be and when are you coming?
if you are well north then there are plenty of holiday homes/batches on the Hibiscus Coast which become cheaper over the winter. Try Maygray for furnished rentals here (can find details if you want) - we took a furnished place and made sure we had an overlap of about a week after our stuff arrived and was delivered to the unfurnished place. Good luck.

nero

Firstly thanks everyone for your comments much appreciated.

Lardyl we would like to be fairly central, one of us has a job at Auckland City Hospital and the other probably a job in the CBD, so we are looking for something local as we will not have a car initially.

lardyl

no good being on the HBC really then........but check out the usual real estate sites and look up furnished rentals, there are probably some down there in AKL or failing that on the North Shore, they are much cheaper than the motels even on a weekly rate - unless there is a bargain out there!
We paid $450 pw for a nice holiday rental 2 bed, decent garden and nice views/close to beach in Stanmore Bay - but dont forget the agent's fee when you decide whether to rent/get a motel room. When 1st arrived we used the Top10 Holiday Park on Northcote Rd, Takapuna, not a bad bus commute to AKL (about 3/4 mile walk to Northcote shops then a direct bus to central AKL bus station) and clean/cheap(ish).
Good Luck, LL