[dylon]

Just read the thread from renew and not wahting to hijack their thread I thought I would ask on my own thread.
How do you go about "DIYing" your posessions to NZ?
Maybe in my ignorace I have never heard of this before:no
Any advise, where to get advise from would be greatly received:cheers
Anything to save a bob or two!:roll

[bartons]

Hi Dylon,
DIY usually means you don't use a removal company but arrange for a container yourself, pack it yourself and unload it yourself at the other end.
We thought it would be fun (and cheaper) to do it ourselves and can thoroughly recommend it if you don't mind the work.

We started by doing a Google search for "freight forwarder", "shipping agent" etc. and came up with a few companies who supply the container and ship it over to NZ. We emailed them for a quote (be specific: What is included in the price?) and choose the cheapest one ( http://www.gbsfreight.co.uk ). Once we knew the moving-out date we arranged for container delivery (and triple-confirmed it!).

For weeks we had already been packing boxes (look up some threads about double-walled removal boxes, bubble-wrap, silica gel etc.), so it wasn't particularly stressful but more of an ongoing thing. The ready boxes, taped and numbered, were stacked up in the garage. We kept a list of the contents which was over-the-top detailed (f.ex.the book boxes had every single book listed). Looking back there was no need to go into such detail. We then gave the items of interest to MAF a good cleaning (Welly boots, camping stuff, bikes, trailer) and put some red tape around the items that MAF might want to have a look at, to be packed into the container last thing as to be at the front when opened in NZ.

Then the big day arrived. We made sure there was enough space for a truck with a container in front of our house and that some friends were there to help. The container was 3 hours late, so 2 of the friends had to disappear before it even arrived. That left us with me, my husband and one friend to load the container in 3 hours. Unexpectedly the container stayed on the truck, which was so high up I had trouble lifting anything into it! However, we managed to get all our stuff in (contents of a 3-bedroom-house and workshop/garage, even an immensely heave trailer), with the red-taped stuff for MAF at the front. The door was sealed, we wrote down the container number and got a document and off it went.
A few days later (when the container had already left Southampton) we remembered the insurance ( the usual: lettonpercival.co.uk ), and they sorted it out very quickly and over the phone/fax.

Costs so far: £1900 for the container shipping, £300 for the insurance (insurance obviously depends on how much your stuff is worth).

The we went to NZ, and so did the container. And then the real fun started! Naively we had assumed that GBS Freight would contact a shipping agent in NZ and he would arrange everything for us. Not so. We had been given the contact number of a shipping agent in Auckland. At the time we were living in the Bay of Islands and the destination of the container was Dunedin (where we wanted to move to after 3 months). We rang the shipping agent around the time we thought the container should arrive, and he didn't have a clue. However,he managed to establish that our container had arrived a few days ago in Christchurch and would soon be incurring storage costs in port. Arrgh! Well, could he get it out of the port for us? Well, no, he would need the documentation and we would have to clear MAF and Customs ourselves first. Now reading some threads on the forum about MAF/Custom clearance it sounds like a simple process if you are there in person, but to try and organize it from Northland when your agent is in Auckland and you container is in Christchurch but supposed to be in Dunedin... it was hilarious. Actually, at the time it was pretty stressful, involved a lot of organizing, faxing, emailing, phoning (yep, all of that from the internet cafe in town), we even had to organize a company to get the container from the station in Dunedin to a MAF-approved facility and then with another company from there to a storage facility - in the end it took us almost a month to get the container out of the port, which increased our costs inmensely. However, the costs for MAF and Customs and the agent were pretty low (have lost the documents, but reckon it was altogether around 300 (400?5000?) NZD. Check other threads.).

So, our advice for any self-shipper: make sure you are in the city where the container arrives, so you can go to MAF/Customs yourself. It also helps if you have a delivery address (=home) so the container can go straight there. If this is the case, the NZ-end of things should be pretty easy and cheap,too.

After three months we arrived in Dunedin and had a look at our belongings in storage. It had been handled at least twice by different companies while we weren't there, so we expected quite a few things missing or broken. But everything was there, and everything was absolutely fine. Not a scratch or broken bit anywhere, amazing! Then our landlord helped us to move everything into the rental, and a few weeks later we moved it with our trailer into our new house. (Still nothing broken!)

Long waffle, quick summary: we definitely recommend self-shipping if you are prepared to work hard and don't get stressed too easily. Even with all the extra port costs it was still cheaper than a removal company, and you certainly get a sense of achievement.

Good luck! Go for it! If you want more detailed info/waffle, PM me.
Mareike