Auckland NZ - Anyone have tips for moving there?

[nickiw]

DH is having 3rd telephone interview tonight, they seem quite keen and may want us out there in 2 months!! Any tips for good areas to live, schools etc??

Congratulations - how exciting for you are your family.

nicki it will be cold!

But OH SO EXCITING!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS! How exciting!

Nickiw .... congratulations!!!

How exciting! Pack your winter woollies .... remember that although it won't be as cold as an English midwinter (lowest temp about 7C at night) but there won't be Auckland houses don't have central heating!!!!!!!

Let me know if you need any help

ghosty xxx

thanks for your support!! I know this will sound really odd but if I bring over irons, hoovers, tv's etc will they work or all need adaptors. life is fairly chaotic now, shipping companies coming to give quotes. potential tenants are viewing the house, we have just realised we need to get work visa organised!! we are going to call a recommended agent in NZ tonight, booked into the takapuna motor lodge for the first week until we hopefully find a moderate house on the beach in budget. flights fell thru this morning but one we have a timescale from the visa people we will try to rebook. apart from all of this piece of cake!! will it really be cold? how to you keep warm with no central heating? UK summer is going to be fab!!

Don't bring a TV - it won't work here (well it might but you may not get all the channels or something annoying) Same with video. DVD payer will be okay if multizone.
Don't bring a vacuum - they need so much cleaning to pass through our customs regs that it's not worth it. You can buy an excellent vacuum for $200 (best in test by consumer magazine).
I wouldn't want to use an iron with an adaptor as it would seem "wobbly" but it's only small to pack.
The packing company will give you a list of stuff which is subject to extra cleaning/inspections etc. I would leave your spades, camping equipment etc. at home unless you are absolutely sure you will need them.

Visa is quite easy to do yourself if you don't want to pay an agent. Look on immigration website for all the forms

The sun here is SSOOOOOOOOOOO much stronger here in winter - it has a real warmth and intensity to it. Houses are positioned to the sun and so warm up during the day - it's not like the UK where they go in a set position on the street ignoring the sun completely. We don't have central heating, but we do have double glazing and it's currently about 8 degrees during the day in ChCh. We have our heatpump on for an hour in the morning and then the sun comes out and it's okay. We have never had a heater in ds's room, he just uses normal pjs and a grobag. As he was born here and has never known any different he is fine. Look for a house with a heatpump - then you will get airconditioning too!

My mum still wears short sleeve blouses inside my house in summer - she says it reminds her of how houses used to be in the UK before central heating and that she sleeps better in an unheated room.

we have recently bought a huge tent and it would be great to bring it over for weekends away, I guess holidays will be different from now on. Great advice on what to take, EDS have got a recommended agent for the visa and we are hoping this will on take a couple of weeks once we have the paperwork together. Any more ideas please let me know

If the tent is reasonably new then it should be okay. MAF will just want to inspect it, so make sure it is packed seperately so if they keep hold of it for a couple of weeks you aren't deprived of a whole box.

Whoever packs you up ... make sure they write details on the boxes about what is in them ... BTW Bobbybob, we were not given a list by Allied Pickfords ... grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
"Bedroom - miscellaneous" just doesn't do ... We had loads of boxes with 'miscellaneous' scrawled on them and they all had to be individually inspected by MAF (Ministery of Agriculture and Fisheries or Farming or something or other) ... all that was in them would be some kids toys, children's books and a lampshade so there was nothing wrong with the stuff but MAF have to make sure ... If Allied Pickfords had written "Kid's room, toys, books and lamp" then MAF wouldn't have questioned it.
Any outdoor stuff (contents of shed, lawnmower, furniture, bbq, etc etc) MAF will want to look at. They are PARANOID about any undesirable insects, bugs, etc that would jeapardise the 'clean' environment of New Zealand. ... Make sure you wash your wellies before you arrive ... they will ask at the airport if they see wellies (gumboots) in your suitcase. They scan all luggage AFTER you arrive at the airport before you are allowed to leave customs.
The same goes for Christmas tree decorations ... MAF had to inspect our pathetic box of sad plastic xmas tree decs that had only ever been on a plastic tree ... so leave those behind ...
Wicker furniture/baskets ... same applies (apparently wicker can have some kind of insect in it) ... You can imagine the fun the MAF inspector had with a box entitled "Wicker Basket/Miscellaneous" ... it contained all of DS' little baby cardboard books
They will want to check bikes too.
The only thing the MAF inspector confiscated was our lawnmower ... DH had cleaned it but not enough and it was taken away in a sealed bag to be steam cleaned ... we got it back after a couple of days though.

nicki to be honest you won't find a house on the beach for your budget but you should find something nearby.
bobbybob I think double glazing is a bit more standard in Chch than Auckland, I don't know anyone with it and last August when we went back dh, dd and I had to sleep in the same bed with a duvet, 2 blankets and a sleeping bag on as we were so cold. I agree that the sun is stronger though.

Just trying to sort out which visa today is proving a nightmare, my youngest son and my passports run out next year so i am off to newport gwent 8am tuesday for a priority (read expensive) new passport. good advice regarding the labelling of boxes. we have decided to dump a lot more stuff now. also will increase budget for house to get something by the beach, i really like this idea and a nice big heater!!! we are booked into the Takapuna Motor Lodge for the first week, should be fun!!!! (who's idea was this!!)

NickiW - you can change the plugs on your appliances when you get to NZ so that you won't need adaptors - that's what we did with our NZ appliances that we brought to the UK (but agree with Bobbybob re tv and video - sell them here and buy new in NZ).

Good tip about the Christmas tree decorations - wouldn't have thought about that. Think I'll try and group things that need to be inspected into the same boxes. Had forgotten about how strict MAF were at home, although am glad that they are !

Some houses in Auckland have gas heating (not sure if this is the case on the Shore though), but suspect that only newer houses will have double glazing.

good luck tomorrow - it will be easier to do the passports here anyway at least that way you don't have to try to do them from NZ.
I don't know how many houses on the beaches will actually be for rent to be honest, you might be lucky but all along Takapuna and Milford just the land goes for over 2mil with no house so most people aren't going to rent out if they can help it. Down a side street with a quick walk is probably more realistic sorry don't want to shatter your dreams.

We stayed in an old house in Ponsonby at Christmas that had gas central heating - twas bliss as it was very cold in Dec.

You can easily apply for new passports next year from NZ ... you send them to the British High Commission in Wellington. I just did mine and the children's and it only took 5 weeks from posting ....

the reason we think we need the passports is the visa application states that our passports have to run for 3 months after the visa expires. we are applying for temporary work visas which last for 2yrs. it's all been very confusing and we were really going around in circles this morning with the NZ embassy helpline. the skilled migrant visa will take ages and is v expensive, the temporary work visa is for a max of 2 yrs but the employer has to state how long the job is for, and as a perm job we are not sure what they will do with this. however as they want us there asap this seems to be the best way. got a quote from pickfords today £3800 !! we did have flights on hold but are going to wait until the whole visa thing is sorted. it's hard with the time difference to talk to the company in NZ to find the right way!! i guess the house on the beach is wishful thinking to be honest a short walk is no hardship and we need an easy commute and good school before anything else.

Get the work visa and then apply for the permanent one when you are here. The fact that ds has a perm job will help massively and already being here (and thus obviously committed to the idea) will really help.

3800 pounds - what are you bringing and how much is it worth? Did that include insurance?

We are just bringing TV's, 3 piece suite, beds, big american fridge freezer, clothes, toys, bikes, garden furniture, office furniture & PC, kitchen table and chairs not that much actually, insurance is 3% of the value of the goods which I have to work out (like I have time!!).

Our move with Allied Pickfords was about 4 grand too ... I take it you are having a container?
The good thing about AP is that they have an office here and so they do all the paper work ... made it somewhat easier.

Seriously nickiw ... please rethink bringing your TVs ... they WON'T work here! If you want it to work then the only way is to get Sky Channel ... which is what we did in the end which was an unnecessary expense as we don't watch that much telly ...

my husband is a football nut and will have to have sky to watch the english games, but I will let him know!!

Ring TV manufacturers and ask - but they will not work properly here. Leave them at home and buy a nice new one. We left it 6 months when we got here before the winter hit and we wanted one.

Where are you going to put your big fridge/freezer in a rented house? There will be a standard gap probably.

I am getting the idea we need a new TV and fridge freezer!!! It's just what to do with this stuff, it won't go in the loft, it's probably not worth storing, the costs are adding up and I think the voltage is different in NZ anyway, the sensible thing would be to dump the lot but I guess we need the visas first!!! and I can make that decision later, DH would be fine as he would love a new TV. I am hoping we may find a house part furnished including white good which would help.

Part furnished would be unusual in Christchurch, not sure about Takapuna.

I wish that I had sold everything apart from leather sofa and bed, brought only the clothes I absolutely couldn't bear to be parted from and put everything else on EBAY. Because your dh has a job you could put everything on a years interest free (all the time getting interest from your Ebay takings, money you saved on shipping).

One of the main reasons is that it takes 6-8 weeks at least for you to get the main body of stuff (and some of our things were 3 months). By the time you see it again you either realise you don't need it, or you have seen a kiwi version you would rather have. We stayed in a motel for 8 weeks, but you will have to do without things at one end or the other for a while (unless you are having a really big holiday en route!)

Find out about having a bank account all ready to go when you get here. I know my dad got a TSB one sorted from the UK by email.

Our stuff left our house on the 12th March 2002 and went in one 20ft container ...
DH left on 13th March and DS and I followed 1st April ...
We then stayed with FIL for what was originally going to be 2 - 3 weeks and ended up being 6 weeks
Our stuff was to arrive at the end of April but we got it at the end of May. I blame the hold up on Allied Pickfords as it did hang around in their holding area for a good two weeks before they let it go. The woman dealing with our paperwork wasn't quite the full ticket TBH and she 'forgot' to send the paperwork from Customs to MAF ... I should have been on the phone to her every day, hounding her, but I didn't realise she was so crap until I was so desperate to move out of FIL's house I would have carried the container myself!!!!!

Not putting you off am I nickiw? ... it all sounds complicated and nightmarish but it will all happen in the end ...

I would say that furnished and even part furnished houses are hard to come by in Auckland ... doesn't seem to be a kiwi thing to do ...

I am glad we shipped all our stuff. But then we have some nice furniture and couldn't afford to buy new stuff after the expense of moving ...