[tobias]

We have a 3 month baby girl and all of us are from the uk but hope to move to NZ later this year.

Now the thing is we will have to get a baby car seat for her soon so i was wondering would it be a good idea to bring the car seat with us and would it fit NZ cars or is it best to buy another once we get out there.

I am asking this becauce once we get out of the airport she will need a car seat.

thanks

[Simon & Emily]

Hi Tobias,

Welcome to the forum

Our children are older, but will still need a car seat for the journey to the airport and at any stopover we make, and obviously at the other end; we are still unsure what to do about this.

I know young child seats (ie the under 9 month ones) can usually be fitted direct into the airplane seat, and it's a preferred way of securing the child during flight - the only down side is that the weight of it has to be accounted for in your hand luggage. (although I'm not quite sure - someone else may have more detailed info). Most seats fit most cars, but this will depend, of course, on what you are planning to do once you land in the promised land. With any luck, your daughter may well sleep through the whole process - or a lot of the flight - but that depends onhow old she will be :nice1

I'm hoping that Taxis will be able to supply cars with child seats in, (or at least booster seats for older kids) but that may be just a wish. I have to say I've not looked to much into at present, as the other paperwork and location / job stuff has taken priority ;)

Can anyone who has already done this shed any light on it?

Emily

[eric_amanda]

We had two babies, 6mths and 16mths when we flew. We chose to purchase airline seats for them both and bought Britax Eclipse carseats for them both (£75.00 each) These were the only carseats we could find at the time (12months ago) that were suitable for airline seats, as they have to be able to fix in using a lap strap only.

It was well worth the purchase of both the car seat and airline seats as it left our hands free for the rather long journey to do other things, instead of holding on to a baby. Also, on the few occasions that things became too much for them, at least they were pinned down to a car seat, whilst having a good cry about it!!

At this end we initially had a rented Nissan people carrier which the seat fitted into just fine, they also fitted into Eric's bosses car on the trip from Auckland to Whangarei. We then bought a Toyota Estima (Previa in the UK) which they fit fine into.

As for taxi companies supplying car seats....I would not bank on it!

Oh and I forgot to mention, the car seats did not have to go as part of our KG allowance, they were extra like a pushchair is. However you do have to carry them through the airport as hand luggage, which is a bit of a bummer. They do have a left luggage area in Singapore which helped us as we were in the airport for 13 hours!!!

Hope this helps

Amanda

[baboonworld]

I always take my car seat (but not on a plane).

My daughter, who is now 4 and very well travelled, always gets in her car seat to the airport, on stop-overs, and when we get a car or get picked up on holiday or in NZ.

I have never seen a taxi yet with a car seat and since they dont suit all ages anyway it would be pointless.

I am a bit of a paranoid freak about car seats though and HATE not having her properly strapped in (on the odd occasion where there has been no car seat). :uhoh

It makes me so SO SO MAD when i see cars with kids not belted in/on mothers laps/overloaded with kids/ or as my friend recently viewed - a baby on the dash board of a moving car!!!!! 50mph!! :eek

Argh! You have got me going now!! Also people driving too fast/eratic with kids in car.

Where is a policeman when you need one!!! :bobby :bobby :bobby (maybe the government will fix this with "all the extra police" that are going to get us!!!!) Ha ha.

Stop giving out speeding fines for a few miles over the speed limit in safe conditions and eliminate unsafe conditions !!

[Simon & Emily]

It makes me so SO SO MAD when i see cars with kids not belted in/on mothers laps/overloaded with kids/ or as my friend recently viewed - a baby on the dash board of a moving car!!!!! 50mph!! :eek


Oh - I couldn't agree more. It makes my blood boil when you see parents not looking after their children as best they can. I don't mean to sound partonising, but child car seats were invented for a very good reason. I know that when we were kids we were just in the back of the car, not even seat belts, but times have changed. I think we only went in the car to go on holiday to Cornwall - I cannot remember any other times at all. But nowadays children almost live in them (ours are no exception :oops: ). The very least you can do for them is to ensure they can be as safe as possible.

Thats it - rant over


Does anyone know if you can take car seats (not the young baby ones) on the planes - do they go in the normal luggage? Are you charged extra for them? Do you have to include their weight in your normal luggage? You may have guessed that I don't fly much. I'm hoping that you can just load them on as normal luggage, so that you have them the other end, but I just don't know.

Thanks,

Emily

[Jennie & Rob]

We are going Air NZ because if you are emigrating, they let you have an astonishing 64kg each (two long haul cases jammed full) per adult plus 32kg per child (even Katie with all her stuff can only manage 20kg). In addition, you can take a car seat/pushchair. We are taking one of the Britax 2nd stage seats for Finn. Katie is the size of a 10 year old so we are not taking hers but getting one a booster the other end.

[freeflyer]

Not sure if this is any use to anyone , but you can hire car seats , travel cots etc, from a company called 'baby on the move'

www.babyonthemove.co.nz

Our friends used them when they came for a visit , and were very happy with the delivery service and prices.

[Nic in NZ]

hi,
I have one bit of advice.
We were recenly looking to buy a car seat here for my youngest daughter she is growing fast and is about ready to go from her five point harness into a seat that your use with the car seat belt, but i found all the ones i looked at here were not up to the satanard of the uk models so, i had my in-laws bring out the one they used to use for the grand kids ( just the one i wanted, the same as my older daughters one, Britax super cruiser/cruiser plus) when they came out to visit recently.

There was a story in the paper a while back about a family who took their car for it WOF ( MOT) and it failed, the seat belt was worn away because of the style of the car seat here, using velcro to keep the seat belt off the kids necks!!!! :eek

So the moral of the story is bring your uk car seats and get the next size up for them and put it in your container because the ones here just don't compare. :nice1

Now that i have said all that i feel much better :P

Nicola

[Simon & Emily]

Thanks Nicola - good information to know.

Emily