Richard H

Can anyone relay some of their own experiences / advice on the actual physical move to NZ. We are a bit stuck on the whole.. do we ship our stuff before we leave and have to borrow a bed and sofa and stuff ? Or do we keep our stuff right up until we fly out and stay in furnished accommodation until our stuff arrives? Or do we sell everything and buy all new stuff when we arrive? AHHHHH !! Any thoughts ? !! Cheers Richard

Mattyk

Hi Richard,

We are going over late Sept and are getting PSS to ship our stuff out there. We will end up renting an unfurnished property and will have to buy/rent some basic items for a while. Or eat out a lot. We wanted to ship our stuff over earlier but with the housing market being as it is we are a bit stuffed.

Probably doesn't help much but your not on your own. We have been quoted just over 3k to get our stuff over there and if you think a TV is worth 1k and then washing machine, clothes etc I think it would cost loads more to buy new over there? Just depends on what you have here at the moment.

Good luck.

Matt

teebrown

We are taking everything, as everything is bought and paid for we think if we sold everything cheep and then bought again, it would cost more and take ages to get all thoses that make a home. We will be shipping our stuff before we go, someone suggested getting/borrowing a caravan to stay in for a few weeks and then a few weeks at my mothers, we intend to beg, borrow and steal from friends just to get us by and then when we move to NZ we should, hopefully, have all our funiture and familier surroundings around us to help us settle in easier.

We aren't sayin our way is the right way, but we feel it's best for our family.

All the best

Moomoo

Hi

We have PSS in right now (well, earlier today) - they have worked so hard today, and are due to pack tomorrow and Thursday. We are now staying with family as the house is full of taped up boxes/furniture. Our stuff will be held in storage for approx 4 weeks and will then be shipped out - we are flying out on 15 October. We will be staying in serviced apartments for approx 6 weeks on arrival and will then look for a rental and hopefully our stuff will arrive when we have our rental sorted - that's the plan anyway.

Moomoo

love30stm

We was in rental in the Uk having already sold our house, then moved with family for a couple of days, got out furniture in storage... arrived in NZ stayed in a camper van for 4 weeks, hubby got a job, then we stayed in a hotel, which the company paid for , for 4 weeks bought a house, which we moved into after 2 weeks....rang to get our stuff shipped over , so was in the house for about 8 weeks till our stuff arrived and we brought everything and it was like christmas opening all our stuff...

in the meantime while we were waiting the estate agent, my oh work colleagues brought around furniture, beds, kitchen stuff Tv for us till our stuff come...it was great...

Scouse Dave

We sent it all on ahead, then did a trip round the UK visiting family and friends to say our goodbyes, then we did a holiday trip across the USA (flew to New York, saw all the sights etc), then on to LA, visited Grand Canyon (and that WAS worth the visit - can't wait to go back and do the full trek to the river) and finally arrived in Auckland more or less as our furniture did. We did end up staying in a motel for about four weeks because (naturally) our house wasn't ready, but the motels here are generally family run places, and the couple who run the one here in Kohi (the Aarangi) were lovely and made us all feel as much at home as could be. I'd even say they made what could've been an ordeal very enjoyable and are now firm friends of ours.

That said, if you have kids in tow especially, keeping everyone amused can be hard going - luckily, we were in this phase before all that big rain started!!

love30stm

Well lucky you! unfortunately not all of us are in a position to spend stacks of money before starting a new life in NZ

Biddy

Shipped everything via PSS End July.
I flew 1 Aug (to find Job, accom, car etc)- wife and kids stayed with parents
Flew back end Aug
All flew to USA for 2 weeks early Sept
Arrived NZ end Sept
Rented furnished accom for 4 weeks
Moved into unfurnished rental at same time as furniture arrived.

Which was nice.

Am Loolah

Hi Richard,

I remember finding things like this so hard to get my head around at the time! We had Brittania come and spend 3 days wrapping and packing before our lives disappeared in a 40 foot container! Delivery in NZ was 8-10 weeks.

The last week in the UK we stayed at a holiday park with some of Hubby's family. So no cooking, could go back to house and do a final clean as it was on the market, and there was a bar!! The two dogs went to kennels locally for the last week before we picked them up and took them to Heathrow.

We flew Singapore airlines and stayed 2 nights in Singapore which was really nice. We were able to relax and get our body clocks round a little more and we got to take the kids to the night safari!

Arrived in Auckland and stayed in a serviced apartment for 2 days whilst we waited for the dogs to arrive. Hired car and trailer, collected dogs and set off for a fully furnished and equipped (including towels and linen) holiday home here that had agreed to accept the dogs. Paid through the nose for the pleasure mind you! But it meant we didn't have the added stress of camping with no home comforts whilst we tried to sort everything else out, plus it was in the school zone that we wanted to be in. We booked and paid for 6 weeks and then had an option to extend on a weekly basis if we needed to whilst waiting for the container and to find a house. Our container arrived in 6 weeks so we didn't need to extend!

It worked for us. I couldn't have handled a holiday en route myself, I was just so desperate to get here and "start"!!

Bo-Jangles

Yeah, it's not hard to lose five or six weeks in transit. We spent approximately two weeks in the UK touring the rellies for last goodbyes, a weekend in a holiday park, and a night at a hotel near to Heathrow. With five nights stopover on route, 2 days flying and two weeks in a serviced apartment at this end. We took on a rented house the day before we checked out of the holiday apartment and container was delivered the very next day. It all worked out brilliantly.

If you can plan to 'waste' some time, have a few days break here and there, the time passes very quickly without too much hardship