[marcia]

Yippee :raebanana we have our blue stickers at last - mega speedy turn around too - sent on Friday 22nd sept recorded, signed for Monday 25th, received back today 3rd October.

We also received a cheque back for £60 - we had sent £480 for the migrant levy as per our 'approved in principal' letter but the fees were REDUCED in July, so we had overpaid!

It's all getting very real and very scary and very exciting and very stomach churning and basically every emotion you can think of at the moment! :uhoh

Well onwards now - better go and sort out some more of the wardrobes for the four 'c's'

CHUCK

CHARITY

CONTAINER

CASE

[wolfysmith]

Nice one Marcia!!

Sorry I didn't make the get together Saturday night - no babysitter :wah

Top Tip - be ruthless. We took loads of stuff and didn't need half of it or could have bought it cheaper or for the same price in NZ. Not sure how much furniture etc your taking but I'd get rid of anything that is not really personal to you or very expensive.
You can always buy it over there and once you've priced up the cost of shipping it, you'll probably wished you had.

[Trigirl]

Nice one Marcia!!

Sorry I didn't make the get together Saturday night - no babysitter :wah

Top Tip - be ruthless. We took loads of stuff and didn't need half of it or could have bought it cheaper or for the same price in NZ. Not sure how much furniture etc your taking but I'd get rid of anything that is not really personal to you or very expensive.
You can always buy it over there and once you've priced up the cost of shipping it, you'll probably wished you had.

That’s the first time I’ve heard anyone say that – normally the advice we hear on here is that furniture is really expensive in NZ and you should bring anything as whatever you don’t need you’d be able to sell on trademe?

Now I really don’t know what to bring!!!

[StevieD]

Well done - yes, it is getting more real by the day for you. See you before you go :)

Steve and Jan and kids. xx

[willsken]

I have the problem that the stuff in my house takes up just over a 20 footer. Nowhere near enough to justify a 40 footer, so we are having to go through and get rid of stuff. Somethings you can't justify taking when you consider the cost of shipping. I am going to buy a new cooker, washing machine and dishwasher to ship.

[marcia]

We are taking a 40 footer!!!!!!!!!

Kev has a lot of machinery and tools and equipment that he has built up over the years, and for him to sell it all here for peanuts and then try and replace it NZ would cost us a lot more than the cost of shipping it over.

We had several shipping companies out (5 in total) they all said we needed 1500 cu feet, which prompted Kev to alter the stuff he was thinking of taking and add some other items to his list (whats the point in having another 500 cu foot and shipping fresh air??) - we have asked our favourite shipping companies to come back out to do a requote, one came last Weds and the other is coming on Friday - we have told them that the job will go to who ever comes up with the cheapest quote - we are happy with either company and won't be ringing them to try and haggle the price - so as kev say's they have to keep their pencils sharp!!!!!!

We need one of the containers which can be lowered down onto the road due to the nature of some of the 'heavy' items Kev is taking. They have said they will load all the household stuff first then build a partition and load in the workshop stuff last. Kev is 'crating' some things himself since he has the use of a sheetmetal workshop, he is building a steel box around his lathe and also a frame to go over the trailer so they can stack up and around it. (This will save on the costs if he does it himself! - free steel from his sponsor!!)

They have already contacted MAF about some of the items he is shipping, which include two large 'scag's' these are big walk behind mowers (for when we have our livestyle block :D) . MAF have said that rather than unloading these heavy items at a bonded warehouse to inspect them they will allow delivery to our home (where-ever that may be :uhoh ) and inspect on site.

I have also requested that the shipping company inform the delivery people at the other end that we will pay our own MAF fees direct!!! :yes

I'll post the two quotes when we get them!

[wolfysmith]

That’s the first time I’ve heard anyone say that – normally the advice we hear on here is that furniture is really expensive in NZ and you should bring anything as whatever you don’t need you’d be able to sell on trademe?

Now I really don’t know what to bring!!!

I bought more furniture back with me to the UK than took out! The reason - we found a really good store in Tauranga that sold indonesian mahogany furniture real cheap. We spent about $1500nz and got Super Kingsize bed, two chest of drawers, a 9 draw pyramid chest, an opium table and a massive wine cupboard that holds 28 bottles plus cabinets for glasses etc.
We shipped it back because we knew it would cost us more to buy in sterling than it would cost to ship it.
This time though we've agreed that we won't go through all the hassle and red tape that we had with shipping. No electrical items, no furniture that we cannot get a like for like replacement in NZ, no kitchen items, ornaments etc etc. Travel light that's my policy. Two suitcases. One for Sally and I and one for Nancy. We're sending her toys by surface mail as that's cheaper than shipping.
We found that you could buy most of the small things you need to stock a house with at Briscoes for half the price it cost us to ship all the stuff we'd brought with us.

[StevieD]

I like mahogany, is it in Tauranga itself or somewhere on the outskirts? Could you give us the name of that shop please????


Steve

[Diny]

I like mahogany,

Steve


I do too - I can never understand these people who have several partners at once.


A refund Marcia !!! 60 quid will buy a good few Wednesday lunches in Palmy.

Diny

[StevieD]

DOH!! i had to explain that to Stevie then:laugh:laugh

I dont like maghogany or several partner neither:nice1

Jan

[Kim39]

Well done Marcia. Who'd have thought immigration would cough up a refund when all you seem to do with this emigration lark is spend your hard earned cash.

Kim

[StevieD]

Yeah, visas and admin cost a fortune!!!!

[Kim39]

Well this reply brings up my 1,000th post.......get in there:raebanana

Steve i should know as each time i change jobs the variations cost $60, so upto now i have spent $420 on the conditions, $300 on a failed EOI, and the original $1060 to get us here on the general work visa's. I know the process is cheaper here than back home. We'll see the difference should we eventually get that elusive PR.

Yes 1,000 posts, quite proud really.

Kim

[Jameelka]

Fab news Marcia,congratulations!
We had a 40 ft container.
Was told it would take about 3 months,arrived 6 weeks later! and we are not ready for it as the house is too small that we are renting.So hence in the next 2 weeks we are moving into a larger one down the rd,as Pickfords charge over $400 per month for storing our stuff,and we've already paid them enough as it is! especially with this MAF bit and charging to unload the container as we need to store it! long story! :exit

[katandbob]

Well Marcia, a refund, bet thats a first.... that 'll get you an extra acre!

ps can Kev come cut my lawn...........my lawn mower broke on the first run :no

But Mitre 10 Mega swapped it and gave us some free oil for our troubles :nice1

just need to get the boys to cut the grass now :uhoh dont think it will work though.

Robs been buying tools left right and centre - $800 got him a compressor all the bits and paint and other bits and bobs for the boys to re-spray Jordons car.

ps he does his licence on saturday. the driving instructor said he should pass easily so fingers xd.

hope to see you this way soon

Kat & Rob and the boys....

oh and pps I got loads of cheap furniture that would have cost me a fortune in the UK, all solid wood....but a word of warning....renting a damp house can cause the drawers to stick....but the furniture shop here is swaping the lot as its guaranteed for 5 yrs - so I am not worried and our house is not damp - thank the heavens!