[tigerlily]

I'm thinking of what to toss and what to take. What do you wish you had tossed?

[Carol]

Absolutely nothing.

Even my maternity clothes (that I squashed into the last tiny spot in the container) came in useful eventually.


We brought EVERYTHING.
and I'm so glad we did!

[richard]

Our barbecue, I would be too embarrassed to use it here as the NZ ones are so much bigger! :oops:

Took ages to clean it too.

[Tanya]

I maybe wouldn't have been so quick to replace children's bikes as we did...

Our 7year old son had a rather big accident where he collided into another bike sideways. Silly other person shoudn't have been on the pavement but hey thats why they are called accidents..(other person dislocated their finger and he was a tennis coach :no )

Needless to say, when trying to get it repaired, we hit brick walls as the parts are unobtainable here in NZ. So the bike (which we bought a month before we left and had only been out of the container for a week) is now a write off :oops:


Tanya

[sarahw]

Nothing!!! Bring all you can!!!!! :yes

[lindajax]

wardrobes... brought em all ... most houses here have built-in ones BUT I hear the market for our second hand wardrobes could be good.!

We brought EVERYTHING and seem to feel that it is very comforting to have YOUR stuff around you when you are feeling a bit lost at sea.

Some stuff is pretty pointless and useless to us but ... we had a 20ft container and why not fill it if your gonna pay for it was our motto.

Linda xx

[Terry&Sophie]

I'm not sure yet... looks like our stuff is still in Bristol!! Will be at least 8 weeks before we get it... I'm anticipating more than that :(

But... one comment I would make (to UK people, don't think it applies to those from US) is that things like fridges, washing machines and tumble dryers seem very expensive here, even second hand. Unfortunately bringing them out means you have to make-do until they arrive, but we've seen rental packages which don't seem too bad and there are always launderettes! :nice1

I'd also second Linda's comments about the wardrobes, our 3 bed rental has built-in wardrobes in every bedroom. Luckily ours was falling apart so we chucked it!

We basically sent most of our stuff out unless it was something we needed to replace anyway (i.e. bed, saucepans, plates)... luckily those things would have been difficult to do without anyway so we were able to buy straight away.

Can't think of anything else at the moment, will let you know when our stuff gets here!

Sophie

[jonSE]

Been here 4 days , currently living in a holiday let, but hopefully we'll get a long term rental next week.

Difficult to say with total honesty what we may wish we had left behind, our containers don't arrive until 19th March (maybe) but we had no time to decide what not to bring, only time enough to earmark what could be left behind if it wouldn't fit.

What I wish we could have left behind - We flew out here with three cases all around the 30kg mark. Only one had clothes in, the rest was paperwork and other day to day stuff.

Jon

[Hannah-NL]

Is it true most houses in NZ come with built in wardrobes?

[Diny]

Hey - just a thought. What about everyday plates and bowls, knives & forks etc. Also iron and ironing board. Surely it's not worth bringing them (they're nothing flash) because I'll be needing to use such items as soon as we arrive.

What have others done?

Diny

[Terry&Sophie]

Is it true most houses in NZ come with built in wardrobes?

Hi Hannah,

The house we're renting has built in wardrobes, as did all 4 of the houses we went to open homes at on Sunday. That's only Auckland, and only 5 houses, but I suppose it shows they must at least be quite common.

Sophie

[Terry&Sophie]

Hey - just a thought. What about everyday plates and bowls, knives & forks etc. Also iron and ironing board. Surely it's not worth bringing them (they're nothing flash) because I'll be needing to use such items as soon as we arrive.

What have others done?

Diny

Hi Diny,

We're in for a long wait for our container to arrive, but we're managing fine. We were lucky that we really needed new plates anyway, so we bought new when we got here (still sent the others over anyway, for spares!). We managed to pick up cheap cutlery (about $9/$10 for a set I think) and some basic cooking utensils at the Warehouse. We chucked our saucepans (cost me about £10 8 years ago to take to uni!!) and bought some posh new ones here.

As for iron and ironing board, I can't comment.... haven't used one for years :oops:

Good luck

Sophie

P.S. If you're heading Auckland way and get here after our container arrives I'm sure we could pass on our emergency buys!

[kiwidebs]

I lived in NZ till I was 26 and all the houses we ever lived in had built in wardrobes in every bedroom. That was in Christchurch, Blenheim and Auckland (10 houses in all). As far as I can remember all my friends had built in wardrobes in their bedrooms too.
Hadn't thought about ironing boards, Diny - certainly don't want two of the things!! I really like the one we've got here - it's really big and solid - so we might buy a cheap jobbie to tide us over till our stuff arrives (or walk around wrinkled for a bit :nice1 )

Hope this helps
Debs

[Hannah-NL]

Thanks Sophie and Debs!! :nice1
At least now I know a few items we DON'T have to pack :P

(I think I'm having one of those "What if" weeks, that's normal, right?)

[Diny]

(or walk around wrinkled for a bit )

Oh I can manage that no worries.

Diny

[tigerlily]

Diny-
I've been thinking about taking a stash of plates, silverwear, a couple of knives, a couple of pots, a bowl- just a few essentials of the kitchen- in a checked-in luggage on the plane. Thought it might make it easier with the kids not to have to get the emergency stuff until ours arrived. I honestly am not sure what to take on the plane v. what to pack on the ship.

[Tanya]

In our luggage I took the melamine plastic plates and cups of the kids, can opener, sheets and duvet covers for us all, towels, potato masher( :laugh ), peeler, cutlery, teatowels, plastic beakers, sharp knife(staysharp one in their holder so I didn't slice my hands off!), marmite, Coffee, teabags, persil tablets(I don't know why either) loads of calpol and nurofen for children (cost here for Nurofen syrup for kids is $14.00 approx).

Loads of packets of generic nurofen for us( it so expensive over here as I have only seen the Nurofen brand not the shop branded stuff)NZ$7.00 approx for 12 tablets :eek could get them for 50p a pack in good old Wilkinsons.
A telephone to plug into the sockets was amongst it too

Yes I did have some room for clothes etc :laugh - we came Air NZ so had the extra baggage allowance. Can't think of what else off the top of my head but I have to say all of it was used and saved us some money when we got here. It costs enough to kit out with duvets etc any saving so you arent doubling up is worth it (if you have the space that is)

Tanya

[Hannah-NL]

"or walk around wrinkled for a bit" Thats how I look in the mornings anyway! :P

[jonSE]

Well having rented a holiday let for a week (so we didn't need anything but clothes) we've now rented an unfurnished house for 6 months - What are we missing until our container arrives-

Bed Duvet Pillows (bought sheets, cases with us)
Washing machine and fridge
Furniture generally.
Pots and Pans

We brought a picnic set with us (originally bought in Auckland 2 years ago)

So what could we have brought with us that we are now missing for a few weeks ? errrrrrrrr tried putting a fridge in your case? or a bed ?

yeah we could have rented somewhere that was furnished (we found a really nice place) but that would have meant we had to leave most of our own stuff in boxes in the garage until we buy somewhere.

Camping will be fun for a week or three.

Time to check out warehouse for cheap pans, a cheap bed maybe bunks for all those visitors and a tv.

Jon

Waiheke and enjoying it

[richard]

Bed Duvet Pillows (bought sheets, cases with us)
Washing machine and fridge
Furniture generally.
Pots and Pans



FWIW, we rented a TV, fridge freezer and washing machine from Mr Rentals for the first three months that we were here. It cost $31.50 per week to rent them.