[chrisndenise]

If you could turn the clock back and were back in the uk, what would you, with the hindsight of living in NZ now, pack to take with you and what would you have left behind? I read the thread about top loader washing machines and now starting to wonder what other things are more expensive, and a pain to get hold of, or just not worth the hassle taking with you. Also how long does your stuff take to get there?
ChrisnDenise;)

[zardell]

Oooh there are loads of threads just on this subject - have you done a search?

Anyway, from a purely personal point of view and bearing in mind we brought EVERYTHING, I wouldn't do that again.

I would only bring all the personal, sentimental items that really meant something to me. You can buy everything you need here in NZ. As my OH says - it's not a third world country..........LOL

Having said that, there are only the two of us now (grown up family back in UK) and we have done a lot of travelling and moving around NZ's North Island and with a furniture van load of furniture to either store or move, it can get expensive.

Shipping our goods from the UK took about 9 weeks for us, but we had a full 20' container. I believe it can take a little longer for smaller amounts.

Julie

xx

[Malay-Coopers]

We are regretting not bringing more. We left all the kitchen stuff behind - pots, pans, glasses, dishes. We also left behind many of our daughter's board games, and smaller toys. But once we saw the prices in NZ we had wished we had brought them. Toy prices are amazingly expensive. We are from the US so we didn't have the option of bringing the electrical appliances. Wish we could have though since our rental needs washer, dryer and refrigerator!

[katandbob]

Oooh there are loads of threads just on this subject - have you done a search?

Anyway, from a purely personal point of view and bearing in mind we brought EVERYTHING, I wouldn't do that again.

I would only bring all the personal, sentimental items that really meant something to me. You can buy everything you need here in NZ. As my OH says - it's not a third world country..........LOL

Having said that, there are only the two of us now (grown up family back in UK) and we have done a lot of travelling and moving around NZ's North Island and with a furniture van load of furniture to either store or move, it can get expensive.

Shipping our goods from the UK took about 9 weeks for us, but we had a full 20' container. I believe it can take a little longer for smaller amounts.

Julie

xx

We didnt bring any big stuff - just 12 boxes of clothes used as packing for my sentimental stuff, oh and my expensive kettle:laugh I worked out that it cost me less to get the stuff replaced here than it would have cost to ship out our whole household stuff...Good way of de cluttering as well!

Although I still dont have any BEST China - but since I haven't had any guests actually take me up on my invitations it doesn't matter - I will just go to Briscoes or Warehouse wehn I finally get someone that says YES:o

Maybe they heard how bad my cooking was???:laugh

Any way we have another 4yrs to get our stuff over if I changed my mind! (some of my stuff is in my MILs garage!)

If you have PR you have 5yrs from the date stamp of your entry into NZ in your passport to get your stuff over without paying the GST etc.

[Joanne100]

We brought everything and i mean everything! we were told how expensive everything was so we even brought things we didnt want as we were also told about the NZ garage sales and that one persons trash is another persons gold!
our 40ft container took about 8 weeks to get here, an 8 weeks that lasted forever, well worth the wait tho wen ur stuff comes, its like Christmas so much fun unpacking.

[nippa&pippa]

We brought everything include new items like bosch washing machine, (use it once to make look like been used to avoid paying tax :nice1 ), also we brought all baby equipments and children's toys with us to save money! (Also we did research during our reccie that children's toy are expensive here anyway as well as some of baby equipments)
Only things we wish we didn't bring is TV, can't get it work here but we did use it however for children to watch their video and dvd we brought with us of Little Red Tractor, Bob the builder etc :nice1
Only thing we wish brought with us is new bosch dryer, whiteware are expensive!

[barryp]

There is almost nothing that I regret bringing over (just a couple of electrical items that didn't work properly here). I spent quite a pile of cash on personal goodies (books, CD, DVD) before coming, and don't regret doing that at all - they're twice as expensive here if available at all. My regret is that I didn't spend more on such adult toys, especially whisky.

Yes, shipping costs are dear, but unless your personal furnishings are all junky it's probably cheaper to bring all you can. And it's not a purely rational decision, besides - for some of us, having our 'stuff' with us is part of settling well.

[Jo Jo]

This is an interesting thread, thanks for starting it (I know it's been covered before, but nice to see it again!)

I'm in the situation where I have less than a 20' container's worth of stuff to bring, but am budgeting for a full 20' container because I would rather pay the extra for the advantages of not sharing a container (in terms of the shipping time, mainly).

That means I am haing to decide whether it is worth buying things here rather than in NZ, so any tips on what people wish they'd brought with them are really useful. (I've noted the front-loading washing machine already - thanks, nippa&pippa! I'm trying to work out how I can rig it up to use once before shipping, which will be hard to do because it would involve dismantling my kitchen and unplumbing my present machine which I am leaving behind!)

[Pip]

Like others, we brought everything including a brand new bosch washing machine after reading these threads. (we took a chance on that, and shipped it without even trying it out, but that way it was packed to travel and we plugged it in last week and it worked beautifully - not had a great toploader experience to date in our rental).

I def fall into the bring everything camp, firstly because when you're earning GBP, its a lot easier to buy day to day stuff and stockpile it and secondly, when you first arrive, you have a lot of costs, houses/rentals, cars, insurances etc etc and anything which minimises your outlay, for us made life a little easier.

We're also really glad we packed our wine collection, as well as several boxes of food - not that we can't get most of it here, but it keeps the costs down and is nice to have a few comfort items. OH has skips for lunch today!

Anyway as well as our belongings, I brought:

dried food items
cadburys/Green & blacks
crisps
gravy granules
tomato sauce/brown sauce
baked beans
stock cubes
tinned stuff
skips/wotsits
duchy original marmalade
stuffing mix
olive oil (anything sealed that we hadn't used)
pasta
sealed packets of herbs
tea bags

plus

womens things...
cotton wool
also, stockpiled our fav toiletries, Fenjay spray from boots, FCUK, Oil of Ulay etc, Radox, clinique

Now you can pretty much get all of these here (not found the Fenjal yet), and whilst they convert to the same price as GBP, that means they are often more expensive relative to your NZD earnings, so it means you don't have to worry about buying them for a while.

IMHO - bring everything, if I'd known there was going to be space for another five boxes in our container - I'd have brought some ikea furniture too! (went from two bed flat in UK to four bed house!) and like Sophia, a bosch dryer!

[nippa&pippa]

That means I am haing to decide whether it is worth buying things here rather than in NZ, so any tips on what people wish they'd brought with them are really useful. (I've noted the front-loading washing machine already - thanks, nippa&pippa! I'm trying to work out how I can rig it up to use once before shipping, which will be hard to do because it would involve dismantling my kitchen and unplumbing my present machine which I am leaving behind!)

One of mains reason i used it once to check if it is working before you leave as can't take them back once you are in NZ!! If you don't want to test it and bite the bullet :exit , just unwrap the wrapping and labels etc, nothing showing it is new product so customs don't know about it if they ever check it as they didn't check mine because I asked packers to rewrap in their wrapping sheets (John Masons) along with other kitchen appliances of fridge, freezer, microwave, and poor vaccum cleaner!! (make sure vaccum cleaner had been clean out first!!) :nice1