Planning Our Move To New Zealand - Household Goods

The third part of the moving story is about our household goods.

As I mentioned yesterday we made contact with 4 different companies who we could potentially use to move our things and then continued to ask questions of the 2 companies who provided the best service as at first glance most of the prices seemed to be similar.  We then organised for both of the companies to come and give us a full quote by actually looking at our possessions to make sure what we were planning on taking was going to fit along with our car.

We have been culling our possessions for the past 12+ months and even now there are more things that could probably go and still might.

Both companies that came and looked at all of our things were happy that everything would fit along with the car so that was a relief.  They provided us with all the information about storing our gear prior to moving, insurance costs and the process of packing, shipping and delivery.  In the end the company that we chose (Conroy Movers) was the the company that most convenient in terms of vehicle movements and pre-travel storage.  The other company (Kent) provided service that was just as good and their price was comparable too.  But with everything we have going on convenience wins out.  Now we will see if they live up to our expectations.

The basic process will be us packing what we need while our goods are in transit, the movers come in and pack all of our other things over 1-2 days taking a full inventory and then they come and collect it all on day 3.  It all gets stored at their yard until being delivered to the wharf where it gets loaded on a ship and sent to New Zealand.  The inventory gets sent to New Zealand customs who advise what items they want to inspect on arrival.  On arrival it all gets unloaded from the items that customs want to inspect get set aside and the rest is left packed. Customs do their inspection and will fumigate/treat/clean (at our cost) anything they feel warrants it.  Everything then gets repacked onto a truck and delivered to our address.

We have been assigned a personal liaison who will oversee everything for us and be our point of contact which is great.  There are still quite a few logistics for us to sort out as we have been thrown a bit of a curve ball in terms of living arrangements but that will be a topic for another post.  For now we are moving forward and have a few adventures ahead of us before moving including a trip away and baby due in a few months.