[marcia]

Ok another question for those of you who have moved (I'm making my own 'bible' ready for when we go to 'action stations!'

Would it be easier to ship your belongings a month or so before 'you' go?

Our thoughts are that it's easier to beg and borrow what bits we might need here in the Uk than be stuck without a load of stuff in NZ!


By the time I've finished we'll have sold our house, shipped our belongings and won't have even done a scrap of paperwork to get Visas and they'll turn round and say 'no we don't want you!!!' :eek

[Moorf]

We held off moving our stuff until we'd bought somewhere here, but then we never intended to rent for long.

[Jennie & Rob]

I would definately ship the stuff well before you go and borrow stuff in the UK from friends and family. We didn't do this and spent 3 weeks in a rented house with borrowed stuff but we also spent $00's on stuff from the Warehouse which we'll never use again.
We were lucky that Carol from this forum lent us some stuff and arranged for us to borrow a table and chairs from someone else but - it does feel really awkward borrowing stuff from people you don't know or have only just met. You need quite a lot of stuff really - even to live minimally. It would have been easier somewhere we had lived for years and knew lots of people. Hope that helps!

[veronica]

A lot depends on how much you are prepared to rough it. its amazing how much stuff you can do without really.

[Moorf]

So true Veronica - admitedly we rented a furnished place which helps - all we bought when we arrived was a telly and linen and some bits and bobs and friends from the forum helped us out with crockery etc and we could even have borrowed airbeds etc from them.

Should also mention that we sold up EVERYTHING except personal stuff before we left the UK so when we bought things like telly and washing machine we weren't doubling up.

I'd be happy to help out anyone moving to the Chch area with stuff - we've got a double sofa bed, linen/duvets/crockery etc going spare - just ask :nice1

[sarahw]

We shipped our stuff 3 weeks before we left the UK - we moved in with my Mum & Dad & lived out of suitcases (in our summer gear in the middle of winter) for those weeks!

When we got here we still had to wait over a month for our stuff as we came over between Xmas & New Year & there were backlogs of shipments - its not much fun sleeping on the floor in a country where you know noone (so can't borrow anything) and have no vacuum cleaner or cooking stuff or chairs to sit on - or TV!!!

If you have lots of friends that will lend you stuff in the UK I'd recommend borrowing because its a whole lot harder trying to borrow when you know noone!

Good luck! :nice1

[zsj]

We shipped our stuff 3 weeks before we left and still had nearly 2 months here without a thing! But same thing applies - we would be happy to loan out some bits and pieces to people arriving in welly - we have airbeds, bedding, towels, crockery...toys etc. Except not in the next few weeks cos it's all out on loan right now!!

Sarah.

[Miffy]

We shipped our stuff out at the begining of April and moved out of the house that day (rented it out) and then moved in with my in laws for an interesting 3 weeks.
By the end I was desperate to go :laugh (its hard work living with other people / family no matter how lovely / nice / much you love them)

Then took a week to travel down here (via the cook islands ahhhhh lovely)

When we arrived we have 2 weeks in a motel before renting a house

We then had 2 weeks in our house with just what we flew with!!!!

We have bought with us sleeping bags and some lightweight / cooking camping stuff and we surived by camping out in the living room to sleep, boiling water for morning tea / coffee in mess tins over the stove and either eating out / take aways or cooking on th estove in the kitech, (we bought with us one of our smal woks - a life saver!!)

So that means our container took 9 weeks door to door.

The above worked well for us, but we don't have kids....

(personally I wanted to take 4 - 6 weeks travelling to get here but budget wouldn't allow for this)

[jan]

I would definately have sent my stuff before we came here. We did but only 3 days.

There is something about your own stuff arriving, I would have preferred to have gone to live back with my mum for 4 weeks in the Uk than beg steal or borrow over here. Ahhhh my mum.

I suppose every body is different and its what suits you that matters. :nice1

Good luck

[jubjub]

It would be easier to borrow in the UK probably if you are not comfortable with borrowing from strangers.

But we "roughed it" a bit, and rented the basics (bed/sofa/fridge/microwave) when we got here $500 a month, and maybe spent about $100 on a bean bag and a set of tables which may not get used again, but on the whole we lived with the rentals cooker and grill, set of cheap crockery and one saucepan (used as the kettle most of the time) and one frying pan. And of course the heaters we bought are getting used in the new house anyway, as are the duvets.

It makes it sooo much sweeter when you get your own stuff, simple things like the kettle & toaster.

but the minute we moved into the new house, and were talking to the neighbours and told them about our stuff coming this week, they immediately offered to lend us stuff... so just depends on your preference and which may be the most economical for you.

[Moorf]

It all boils down to your personal situation - i.e. if you have jobs and are certain you're staying in NZ and have your visa's etc then sure, ship our your stuff to arrive asap ... but if, like us and others on the forum who come on Visitors Visas and then look for work etc I'd certainly put your gear in storage in the UK until you KNOW you're staying in NZ! Bit silly to pay ££££ to ship it all only to ship it back again :?

[Miffy]

oh yeah it was a great ice breaker, popping around to neighbours and asking to borrow random things.

(Iron and ironong board NO WAY was I buying a dulpicate of those things!!!, funnilly enough my neighbour said I could borrow those for as long as I needed :laugh :laugh )

[Moorf]

What's an iron? :laugh :laugh

[Tanya]

What's an iron? :laugh :laugh

Yeah - I've got 2 of the things - still can't find out what they are used for :laugh :laugh

Tanya

[jubjub]

the guy unloading the container yesterday volunteered to leave my ironing board behind :cool

Not that I iron anyway, thats what drip dry is for :laugh

[Moorf]

I asked hubby and he said it was for waxing his snowboard - so THAT'S what it is ;)

[Miffy]

:laugh :laugh :laugh :laugh :laugh
The only decent reason for owning an iron!




(since having a tumble dryer I now only have to iron shirts (5 of the blokes shirts a week) and an occasional pair of trousers ... happy days )

[veronica]

I'll second all the ironing comments, I didn't realise the iron was supposed to be used with an ironing board, I always thought it was just for snowboards, DOH. well, skis too.

[Carol]

You can make REALLY cool pictures with shaved crayons and an iron.....





:nice1

[adamsat]

Going back to the original question :smile

In an ideal situation I we would have sent our stuff over from the UK earlier than we did (it left 8 days before we did), but because of the uncertainties of the house sale process in England this wasn't possible.

As things turned out we had a week on sleeping bags in the UK, followed by a month doing the same in NZ (things we're made a lot easier by help from other forum members :nice1 )

But it really does depend on how much uncertainty your individual situation has, for us, we didn't know where we would be living, working, ect.

[jonSE]

All depends upon your priorities - both our containers arrived in less than 5 weeks from leaving our house in the UK.By the time we were here and looking for a place to rent we knew within a couple of days as to when our containers would arrive - made for a pressured search for a rental.

Jon

[Simon & Emily]

We were going to ship our stuff over prior to our departure and live with my father, but had not considered any problems this may encounter. Just when you think you get one thing sorted in your mind another set of problems jumps out at you .....

To be honest, 'just' a few weeks without all our stuff may be easy compared to our kitchen situation - I am finally able this week to begin unpacking everything that went away on boxing day into the dining room so that we could re-build the kitchen in preparation of selling the house. It's not been easy, but I keep telling myself it's preparation for moving to NZ :laugh :laugh :laugh :laugh :laugh Simon's confident that we may be able to get it on the market by September, but I'm not convinced . . . :no :no

Emily

[Jo and Andy]

One thing you need to think about when shipping your stuff is that you need to be in NZ with PR to accept the goods when it arrives, otherwise it will be put in customs storage. Not sure what the costs of this are, but don't know many things like that, that are cheap.

Also if like us you have a plan of where you are going, but need to check out a few other cities, it is better to change the desitination of your container whilst it is on the water, (small extra charge), that or you may end up paying a lot to have it shipped by truck from one end of NZ to the other.

Just a few things I picked up from one of the removal companies this week. Ahhhh quotes.

Hope this helps a bit.

[kiwidebs]

Simon's confident that we may be able to get it on the market by September, but I'm not convinced . . .



Funnily enough Mark's always more confident about these sort of things than I am too. And actually, we're both right about 50% of the time. Nothing like a pessimist and an optimist living in the same house!!! lol

Debs

[ukiwibird]

Well our belongings went out on the 25th July and we fly out on the 8th August. We are sleeping on a mattress on the floor (surprisingly comfortable), we have garden furniture in the lounge and have borrowed a TV from the in-laws. All the good crockery, saucepans have been shipped out, we bought a really cheap set of crockery for £7 from Tesco's and that is what we are using now. It is working well for us, the only thing that I have had to borrow is a hoover. Everything is going to the tip on the day we fly out. Our washing machine and fridge are still here as they are not worth shipping. I'm just getting impatient now to get to Red Beach so I can look for our new home. Regards Trudy