[CJ22]

Here's a bit of a quandary. I wonder how others have dealt with it?

Obviously we need to get our mail redirected, but as we're not going to have an address when we arrive in NZ, we can't give Royal Mail a delivery address. They don't seem to be able to hold the mail for a set time, until we have an address.

We did consider opening a PO Box in Auckland, but you have to be in the country (to show ID), so we can't even get it redirected to a PO Box.

Any suggestions?

[Red Devil]

Hmmm, difficult one... the only thing I can suggest is redirecting to one set of parents/family member or even close friend (assuming they're in the UK) and them to forward on to you until you're sorted with an address... bit long winded plus the unnecessary cost for those forwarding on to you, but at least it will work :)

[CJ22]

Yep that's the best I could come up with too. As you say, a bit long-winded though - the mail takes ages to be redirected even nationally, then has to be sent on to NZ!

Getting a permanent address is going to have to be our first priority - I can't even buy a car without one!

[lockstock]

We redirected from our old address in the UK to a friend in the UK until we found an address here. She sent stuff on to us. Then we arranged for the UK stuff to be sent to our NZ address. After four weeks we moved out of our rental into the house we bought (bit quick and not quite according to plan) so we had to redirect our NZ stuff. We assumed the redirected UK stuff would be forwarded with our NZ stuff to the new NZ address (are you following this?) but no. New Zealand Post said they will only redirect NZ post. The UK stuff is still going to our rental which luckily is only a few houses down the street.

When I phoned to complain I was told the UK redirect was handled by a company called DX and they had to be notified independently. When I phoned DX they said no, it was NZ post's responsibility. So I got back to NZP and they admitted (finally) that it should be them. The same postie goes to both houses for goodness sake!

Still collecting stuff from old address.

And don't get me started on the stuff we posted to ourselves from the UK back in December so we didn't have to be weighed down by paperwork on the plain. Four large envelopes full of documents we needed after the container was sent on its way still haven't arrived - anywhere!

This won't help you at the moment but just to let you know the can stuff up here just as well as in the UK. But I have to admit the customer service is far superior in New Zealand!

[Will_2007]

Getting a permanent address is going to have to be our first priority - I can't even buy a car without one!

Are you sure? I'm sure there are people on here who have bought cars while staying in motels when they first arrived... Someone'll be along shortly with details hopefully...

[Kate D]

Same dilemma for me - I really don't want it a to be redirected to my folks in Scotland to then be sent out to NZ as it's a bit unfair on them, and an uneccesary round trip and delay.

Other options I'm considering:

a) Forward to work...? That's only any good if you've got a job AND your employer is ok with it. Bit of a presumptious thing to do when you've not even started though, so not my preferred choice.

b) My house will be empty (while I try to sell it) so I'm hoping a friend can pick the mail up if I leave a key and some money/envelopes and forward out a couple of batches of mail, by which time I'll have a P.O. Box at least in NZ. I can prefill all the Royal Mail redirect info except the address until I'm out there, (which I'll email back to my friend) and hopefully live with her forwarding for the couple of weeks lag until the redirect kicks in after she drops the form in at the post office. I vaguely recollect you've supposed to give two weeks notice for international redirects but I'll find out when I get to the post office tomorrow as the next item on the to do list! So, this option might work for a few others.

Kate

[benandclare]

Getting a permanent address is going to have to be our first priority - I can't even buy a car without one!

Are you sure? I'm sure there are people on here who have bought cars while staying in motels when they first arrived... Someone'll be along shortly with details hopefully...


Here you go guys

http://www.emigratenz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=15476&highlight=buying+address

[shakyle2906]

Hi

We asked OH's employers if we could have the mail forwarded to their address whilst we were in the Motel for 3 wks and until we had a permanent address - they were great!


We have had our mail redirected for a year, purely just extended it as so many problems, and i srill dont know what to do when it comes to April, as clearly not getting what i should do now, but keep thinking, if i keep it open, they MAY make their way to me. Its just worrying where our mail is actually going, cos its not all coming here!

As regards redirected mail, we have had no end of trouble and we have been here 10mths! We had very little when we moved over, i rang RM - they said all in place! I asked my sister when she was passing our old house, to call in and just ask as a matter of fact if they had any - she came away with a huge bundle! It cost her £18 to post - RM wouldnt refund the costs, i tried always. Then for a while things went ok, just had all the nasty letters saying we had ignored their letters (still not even recd original letters) .

There are still problems, although they still say all ok, certain bills i should be receiving each month, like my credit card and a huge electric bill, as agreed with the companies before i left, are still not coming. I have had to contact myself and set up a standing order to try and get it sorted that way, but the companies still dont believe i havent had the mail or RM!!

If i cant reply by email to companies, I send my letters back to the UK to my mum in law, all in one envelope about once a month and she posts for me, its much cheaper, although i hate asking her, but costs $2 per envelope otherwise.

Endless battle at moment............

Hope not put you off!

Sharon

[peebles16]

We bought car whilst staying in motel and think just used motel address (OH did it so am a bit vague :) ) but no problems that I'm aware of. In terms of mail re-direction we did it through MIL in UK as seemed like most straightforward although more expensive option.

Karen

[CJ22]

Good spot benandclare!

I might ask my boss-to-be if I can use his address. I'm just one of those people who likes to sort stuff out for himself :)

[KerryS]

You can have mail sent directly to a post office and collect it directly from there.
It's called Poste Restante and most post offices in NZ provide the service. I always had my mail sent via this method when travelling, and then once you have an address you can advise your redirection service to send to that.

[Pip]

and you can have a po box before you arrive. although it needs to be requested by a person in NZ - can't be done over the phone. we asked someone to open one before we arrived, we were issued with our PO box number before we left the UK, so sorted out our mail redirection before we left, then when we arrived, we went to the post office, showed our ID, paid for the box and were given the key and could collect the mail that had arrived in the meantime

not good if you know no-one out here, but if you have a friendly contact, they could do it for you.

[whiskythedog]

We ordered a PO Box no in Auckland prior to coming over by sending a fax. They told us the no that they had reserved and we paid for it when we got here. We didn't need any contact in NZ.

[buzztalks]

we were in the same position yet used the UK facility called 'Keepsafe'??
basically the Post office held all mail for us until we could give them a forwarding address.Worked a treat.

Did have problems with the subsequent International Redirection though! Lots of stuff missent to Thailand, plus the Royal Mail suddenly changed their labels on us so instead of 'Apt 312', we got 'Apt 32'. Caused no end of problems. Many late night calls to contact centres etc etc. Having to set up a re-direct for my business mail and a my UK PO Box also managed to confuse them somewhat. We actually had a letter forwarded from our old UK address by the new owners, confirming all the details of a renewed redirection (if that makes sense??) ie they hadn't twigged that we weren't there anymore, despit having sent our mail half-way around the world for 3 months.

We've recently moved to another place in Wellington and have to say that the NZ Redirect system has been very easy to set up, plus seems to be working a treat!

[dusk]

thanks all - thats really useful info! :D

[Jon&Candy]

Hi CJ22,

Immigration NZ sent me a pamphlet the other day entitled "Things to do before you leave for New Zealand". In it is a section which says you can set up a postal box before you leave, with links to NZPost and Private Box.

Private Box don't appear to require any ID checks.
http://www.privatebox.co.nz/immigrationnz/newzddress.html

[CJ22]

Excellent! Thanks all :)