[janemclaren]

Hi - new to the forum but v.impreessed by how many of my questions can be answered in one place!

The hubby and I are currently living in Dublin, Ireland and I now have a job in Auckland starting the end of October. We want to travel for the summer and leave Ireland at the end of July. This means getting our stuff shipped when we sell the house but means that it'll probably get to Auckland before us, unless we have it stored at this end first (not cheap in Dublin).

I was wondering if anyone done the move from Ireland and had any experience with shipping companies, etc. and if you can sort out storage in Auckland without being there ourselves (have lovely friends who will assist but don't want it to be a nightmare for them.

Any assistance gratefully recieved!

Jane

[smitjo]

Unfortunately I can't help you with your query but just wanted to WELCOME you to the forum and wish you every success in your move to New Zealand. :cheers

Good luck :raebanana :raebanana

[zardell]

Hi Jane.

Absolutely no idea and can't help with your query, but I'm sure someone on here can advise you.

Just wanted to say.....WELCOME TO THE FORUM.

Julie

xx

[SharpBlade]

Hi Jane,

We moved from Co Mayo to Christchurch in November 2005. We used Crown Relocations and we are happy with the service we got (to our surprise, they were actually the cheapest). From door to door, it costed €6,500 for the relocation of our belongings themselves in a 20 foot container. On top of that, we have to add the insurance. We took the one proposed by Crown: 3% of the estimated value of our belongings (for that you have to provide your own estimate of the cost of replacement in $NZ). Everything arrived saved and well, and in time. As we cleaned our bikes and garden tools very well, MAF (Ministry of Agriculture and Forest) did not have to steam clean them and so no charge on that side ;)
Crown Relocations is a big company and they have facilities all over the world (actually I work next to their warehouse in Christchurch). Therefore you deal with the same company from departure to arrival. Even though we did not need it, Crown offered to store our belongings in their warehouse in Christchurch if necessary. The cost of storage is the following on a monthly basis:
-Storage: $15/m3.
-Insurance extension: 3$/$1000.
-Storage handling (one time charge): $13/m3.
-Extra cartage to storage facility: $15/m3.

We asked quotations from 5 different relocation companies:
-Crown Relocations: good customer relation, easy transfer of documents by e-mail, quotation for the right container size, cheap quotation, on time and on budget (See above).
-Nat Ross Removals and Storage: second best quotation and the only one with Crown which estimated that a 20foot container was big enough, like for Oman they sent a representative to estimate the required volume. Quotation of €6,900 excl. insurance.
-Oman: good customer relation, quotation for a 40foot container based on paper estimate, I did not ask for a representative to call in as we were impressed with the service from Crown): 9 years ago we moved from Belgium to Ireland with Oman and they were very good. Quotation of €10,080 excl. insurance for a 40 foot container.
-Cronin: quotation included both a 20 foot container (€7,645 excl. insurance)and a 40 foot container (€10,500).
-Allen Removals: poor customer relation(the person I had to deal with on the phone was not at all welcoming and I had to chase her to get the forms post to me) and on top of that very expensive quotation. Quotation of €11,306.80 (I suppose it was for a 40foot container even it was not specified in the quotation).

All the above quotations assumed that the relocation companies pack all the belongings for you.

I hope this gives you a good idea budgetwise.
Note: it took 2 months door to door for the transfer of our belongings.

I wish you a relocation as smooth as possible :rolleyes: ... We moved with our four kids (aged 2.5, 4.5, 5 and 6) and it was a real adventure!



Stéphane.

[janemclaren]

Thanks Stéphane - loads of useful info. there as I was struggling a lot on my own! Will give Crown a call and see what they say :)