One parent taking 15 week old to NZ

[kiwijesta]

I'm thinking of taking our DD to NZ in late April for 3 weeks while my husband goes abroad for work. I don't need a carseat there but will need everthing else. I'm EBFing so thats no problem, but otherwise I'm not sure what we'd need to take for her.

Suggestions please!

You can get most of the stuff there, surely? Presumably you'll be staying with people who can stock up on nappies, wipes, nappy bags for you. Perhaps they can borrow a moses basket for you?

Then you'll need to take: clothes, muslins, nappies etc for the plane, a fold up changing mat, a sling, pushchair. I reckon that's it - they don't need much, fortunately!

I am going away for a month around Eastern
Europe with my 11 week old. Things I have packed:

1. fabric sling - much lighter than a pushchair - you then only have baby and bag to take.
2. Samsonite Bubble travel cot plus blow up mattress plus electric pump the lightest cot there is - I really rate it!
3. Baby bouncer (I have Ripple bouncer mamas and papas - it folds down easily and fits in bag)
4. nappies in groups of 5 (number he uses a day), each group of 5 secured by hairband.
5. clothes in vacpac bags (I have 'family travel pack' from Argos - they reduce size of clothes by about 40 per cent with just rolling.)
6. a case that has 'spinner wheels'. This means 4 wheels that turn all the way round. You can then push/pull the bag without taking any of the weight
7. travel wash - baby clothes will dry on radiators over night!

I hope that helps. Have fun!

Duke

To avoid any hassle with immigration at either end, take a copy of DD's birth certificate, a copy of your DH's passport, and a signed letter from him saying that he agrees for her to be taken out of the country: immigration are getting hot on potential child abductions - see various threads in travel and this thread yesterday - you may get stopped travelling solo with a baby, even if you have the same surname.

For the plane: changes of clothes in your inflight bag for you as well as for DD (not nice if she throws up all over you an hour or two into a flight that long) and lots of big ziploc bags to put stinky vomit/poo covered clothes in so they don't leak or stink out the rest of your luggage. And more nappies and wipes than you think you could possibly need for the timespan of the journey, in case of unscheduled delays or poo explosions.

Thanks everyone, exexpat good idea re letter! Dh and DD travel on a UK passports and have one surname whereas I'm on an NZ one with a diff name!

Any such letter signed by your DH as well should be notarised by a Solicitor.

I'll give you an example of what can happen. The last time we three returned through Heathrow T5 my son was asked by an Immigration official of us, "is this your Mum and Dad?". This was asked of him after checking his passport (and we all share the same surname!). It shows what they can be like these days on children travelling with both parents, let alone one parent.

It is worth using the business class lounge at Heathrow and your stopover (HK much nicer than LA) if you can. That way you have a contained space, food and drink within easy reach, shower facilities - and a person (ring ahead) to take you to your gate HK is huge and it can be quite hard navigating on your own while dealing with a baby. Babies are much easier to travel long haul with than toddlers. Book a midweek night flight and you should have more room on the flight and your DD will probably sleep the first leg, when she fusses in her bassinet a little jiggle should send her back to sleep again. Then you can settle into a lounge in HK, shower (DD lying in a nest of towels playing with rattles etc next to you - the shower rooms are huge), eat, rest some more, enjoying the peace before the interminable next leg where DD will hopefully have another big sleep. I have travelled on my own to NZ with my DD three times now and it was easiest when she was a baby. I take my ergobaby sling, she sleeps with me, I buy nappies there! Good luck

Oh, one thing about travelling with a child on your own can be the amount of clobber you have to carry, with only two arms. If I were going somewhere with one of my children I'd probably pack a backpack instead of a suitcase, since then schlepping it does not require arms...

Take as little as possible.

Carry baby in a baby carrier if you can (easier than trying to fold stroller by yourself at the gate).

And carry all your things in a back.

Take a change of t-shirt for yourself in case your baby vomits on you.

A little blanket that you can put on the ground in a waiting area of airport for baby to bop around on.

One of those really large muslins to put over the bassinet on the plane to block out the light.

Moisteriser (eg: aqueous cream) as their skin gets really dry on the flight.

A water bottle for yourself since you are breastfeeding. The flight attendants don't come around enough with water to keep you hydrated.

Nappies in NZ/Australia are more expensive than the UK.

It is a great age to travel with a baby especially as you are breastfeeding - no liquids to declare and you don't have to take a huge amount of toys.