[willowshouse]

For those of you already there .. what would you have done differently with the benefit of hindsight?

I keep thinking - should I buy a new fridge and ship it? Should I buy more clothes for the kids? Never mind them, should I buy more clothes for me?? Should I be bulk buying Bisto Gravy Granules and putting them in the container? Ditto Walkers Crisps. In short .. if I am planning on renewing lots of things .. personal and household, should I do it all here and ship over .. or wait until I arrive? I am really in two minds - I have spent 6 months in NZ and didn't find shopping there too easy but that is probably because I wasn't sure where to go and because I can't stand to pay full price for anything! Have had 'The Warehouse' experience already - a little bit like Makro but without all the food.

Anyway .. what do you wish you had brought over / not bothered bringing over AND anything else you wish you'd done differently when you first made the move :roll

Dawn

[Diny]

I wish I'd brought over our matresses - they are a stupid price over here. I brought the gravy granules and the walkers crisps (wish I'd brought more of the latter cos they didn't last long).

We had a large empty space at the back of our container - wish I'd filled it with all the bits of furniture I gave away - even if they weren't needed over here they would have fetched a good price as used furniture over here again is a silly price !!

Depends on what kind of clothing you're after, but I find that just everyday 'knock about' stuff - especially for kids - is expensive and poor quality over here. I recently visited home and came back with 2 suitcases stuffed full of clothes from Primark. My kids don't wear school uniform so they get through play clothes at an amazing rate - can be expensive to keep up with. As for casual clothes for us oldies - I've not come across any shops which I can rave about. As for smart/posh clothes ...... can't say 'cos I don't weat them.

Can 't say (regarding the move) that I would have done anything different, other than sneaking a few of those huge pots of paint from B&Q into the shipment, paint over here costs nearly as much as the walls you put it on (and isn't brilliant quality IMHO).

Rule of thumb .... if you have room to bring it then do so, you can always sell it on this end if you don't need it.

Diny

[Toronto_Kiwi]

Thanks - that's helpful advice. We've decided to rent our house rather than sell it (gulp - hope it's all in one piece in a few years) and I'm trying to decide whether to leave behind some of the furniture that we purchased with the house. Some of it was built specifically to go with the house (dining set, king bed in our master bedroom). I guess I'll bring it all though rather than risk what might happen to it in our absence.

[jo-and-jeff]

If you've got room in your container, you probably can bring everything and get rid of what you don't need once you arrive. This is not bad advice, especially if you have limited finances.

That said, if we were to do it over again, I'm not sure that we would have brought as much furniture as we did (though our container is yet to arrive). New furniture is the one thing that we have found that isn't more expensive than comparible stuff in the States, and there is a much better selection of contemporary furniture here (at least in Auckland) than there was where we were in the US.

The other thing that I wish we had done was consult an accountant. If you have any overseas (meaning non-NZ) investments, you'd be wise to look into the tax implications before you leave. At the moment, they've just passed legislation to give certain immigrants who arrive after 1 April 2006 four years of tax exemption on these investments, but this legislation does not apply to all of us. So, if you do have some investments, you may want to try to find an accountant familiar with UK and NZ tax law. Consulting an accountant probably would not have changed our decision to come here, but it would have prevented an unpleasant surprise once we'd already made the move.

Otherwise, I wouldn't change a thing. :clap

Jeff

[jo-and-jeff]

Toronto Kiwi,
I just re-read your post and one thing stood out to me. Bring your king bed and any linens or electric blankets that fit it, if you can. King beds are very hard to come by here, as are bedrooms that will comfortably accomodate one, for that matter. If you have to buy a second one to bring and leave the first behind with the house, so be it, but if you need a king bed and can bring it, you should.
-Jeff

[Nienke]

And don't bring your wardrobes... every house here has built-in wardrobes....
Wish I sold them back in Holland, now we're stuck with them here....managed to find a place for one in the house though, although it's not necessary.

In hindsight I would have brought more washing powder.

[Diny]

every house here has built-in wardrobes....
.

.


Not necessarily - all depends on the style of house. Our old house over here was a 1910 Bay Villa with 4 very large double bedrooms - only one of them had a wardbrobe (which had obviously been added at a much later date).

However, our new house does have built in wardrobes - and yes - I've had to sell the ones I bought with us (although they were VERY useful in the old house).

Diny

[Toronto_Kiwi]

Toronto Kiwi,
I just re-read your post and one thing stood out to me. Bring your king bed and any linens or electric blankets that fit it, if you can. King beds are very hard to come by here, as are bedrooms that will comfortably accomodate one, for that matter. If you have to buy a second one to bring and leave the first behind with the house, so be it, but if you need a king bed and can bring it, you should.
-Jeff

Well, we don't really need the king bed - it just came with the house and now we're used to the extra room ('cause the cats spread themselves out). If bedrooms that accommodate king beds are hard to find then maybe we should buy a queen bed and bring that instead? We'll be renting for at least the first year and I don't want to make 'must have king-size bedroom' a criteria when I'm apartment hunting.

[sweetpea]

Anyway .. what do you wish you had brought over / not bothered bringing over AND anything else you wish you'd done differently when you first made the move

Let's see:

Things I wish I had brought over (or brought more of):
++ Clothing -- Diny is right on about the poor quality -- and expense -- of clothes here -- plus everything takes so long to dry on the line that you really can't have enough clothing
++ Shoes -- the same thing can be said for shoes -- wish I had brought over a couple more pairs of Dansko/Ecco/Merrell shoes
++ Flannel bedding -- the flannelette sheets here pill up immediately.
++ Deodorant/Anti-perspirant -- you only seem to be able to get roll-on deodorant here, ick.

Things I'm sorry I bothered bringing:
++ AA batteries - really, what was I thinking.
++ Books - they're expensive to buy here, but the library is free.

Things I'm really glad I brought:
++ Camping gear - good quality stuff here is available but very expensive. Catch the sales at REI or EMS at home and you're good. Bring your down sleeping bags, Therma-Rest mattresses and lightweight tents, 3+-day backpacks and hiking boots and Tevas too.
++ Heavyweight down comforter - just the thing for cold winter nights.
++ Cases of Luna bars - great to have when everything new seems a little overwhelming and you just need to eat. They don't really have an equivalent here.

I sold all my stuff rather than ship a container over, and I don't regret that decision.

HTH,

Laura

[Bergita]

If this is not too rude, may I ask what everyone means when they say expensive? Most of you seem to be from the UK, whereas I am from South Africa and may have a different notion of what's expensive.... things are not cheap here.

In other words, I'm asking for some figures if it's not too pushy. If it is, then tell me - I can handle it. (sneaks off to prepare to blush)

[jo-and-jeff]

Well, we don't really need the king bed - it just came with the house and now we're used to the extra room ('cause the cats spread themselves out).
Ah, well, we need the king bed, as Jeff is 6'2'' (188cm) and I'm 5'8" (173 cm). Until our container gets here, we're staying in a furnished apartment with 2 queen beds with footboards. That means that Jeff can't even hang his feet over the end; he has to sleep diagonally, so we're sleeping in separate beds right now. Even without the footboards, a queensize is really not big enough for both of us (never mind when the cats get involved).

Rooms, doorways, and everything else here (fridge, washer, dryer) seem to be smaller/shorter than in the U.S. This is not such a big deal, unless you're tall!

Jo

[jubjub]

We would have done things differently if I had not been pregnant, or if we had not had a dog!

If neither of the above had been involved, we would have come over together (not 6wks apart), and hubby would have found his job on arrival (he came over to start a job), other thing we would have done was wait to buy a house, we could have got something better now (not that this place is bad), but factor in a rate of $3, and not the $2.58 we got, and a better salary, it makes a difference.

However with the situation being what it was, we needed to buy, and have a job ready, and with that in mind, I dont think we would change things, we bought our whole house contents with us from UK, and there is nothing I really wish we had bought more of, except the local curry house and a Matalan!