Last minute packing, travelling, settling in tips needed.

[beansmum]

It has just hit me that we are moving to NZ in less than 2 weeks. I think I'm pretty organised but I am worrying about everything it is possible to worry about, any tips to get me through the next couple of months?

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Have a digital camera ready on the day of the move and photograph the boxes leaving the house and some of the more valuable items when packing. So you can prove your claim should something happen to them.

Pack all docs which are valuable into your luggage which will accompany you. Also, set aside items for 2 weeks min. which will tide you over once you get to NZ.

Pack a trolley per kid now, so that they can pick items they like without stress and last minute hectic.

Give back lent books, CDs and the like, take the opportunity to say goodbye to friends/neighbours, etc.

Keep calm, have a glass of wine and relax. People can always reach you in NZ and send stuff to you should you have forgotten something. It is always stressful to move house/life no matter how near or far. Do you have friends/family in NZ? Maybe they can look after the kids for a few days while you sort beaurocratical stuff out.

Oh and pack some Melatonin for the flight and Coffein tablets once you get there.

Skype will tide you and the kids over any homesickness when it comes to friends.

Good luck!

My number one tip (veteran of many international moves) would be to get rid of anything you're unsure about. Shipping is expensive so it doesn't make financial sense to ship anything that can be replaced cheaply, such as crockery.

We got rid of masses of stuff before we left China in November and I'm still unpacking boxes and thinking WHY did I bring that? Honestly, I'm listing stuff on Freecycle every day - it would have been far cheaper to get rid of it while we were still in Shanghai.

Number two is find your passports, vaccination records (Australia is far more hardline than the UK about children having all shots, and NZ could be too), tickets, insurance documents etc and put them together in a brightly coloured folder in your hand luggage right now. DH "thought" he knew where his passport was and two days before we were due to fly actually checked - it wasn't, of course, so cue much panicking about whether it had been packed and shipped or lost. Fortunately his PA found it at his office, but it was a REALLY bad feeling for a couple of hours.

Three more I just thought of:

Make sure you have filled in all the forms and paid the fee for the post redirection service.

Contact your utilities providers about getting any deposits back.

Contact the airline and reconfirm any special requirements such as baby bassinets or toddler meals.

Where are you stopping over? If it's Singapore and you have a long-ish layover, book a room at the transit hotel so you can have a nap and a shower before continuing with the journey. It is worth every penny. There is also a pool at Singapore airport so pack your swimmers in your hand luggage if that appeals.

Oops, one more.

Make sure you've got internet banking on your UK account. You will get odd little cheques, refunds, dividends and things paid in and it's great to be able to transfer this money out or just confirm that it's arrived.

wow, ninedragons you are SOOOOOO organised. Am very impressed.
I second the advice ref UK bank accounts and internet banking. I'm in Saudi and its a godsend having internet banking as we can never get through on the phones. Also, its worth phoning up and 'warning' your credit card company (if you are thinking of still using your UK credit card) as we had a lot of issues at first using it abroad and we were eventually told we could put a note on the system saying where we were so we shouldn't keep having problems.

Work out how much time you think you'll need to pack and times it by 3.

If you have young children, don't assume you'll be met off the plane by your buggy. I always have been in the past and on arriving here after an 8 hour flight with 2 under 3s I had to walk for 20 minutes to the baggage claim area carrying both children and all our hand luggage because my buggy had been put through with the regular luggage .

(AND then it was special luggage so came out after all the regular cases )

I'd disagree with ninedragons there, although I've only done two international moves. I cleared out lots of things when we left the UK (although I am not a great hoarder, and we had moved house only about 18mths before we left for NYC). I rather regret losing things, because replacing them was more expensive and more hassle than I realised. I think it is quite a personal decision, and also depends on the marginal costs of shipping vs buying new. We found second time around that as we had too much stuff for a shared container we had no real space limitations (we didn't have nearly enough stuff for a full container). Anyway that's probably a bit academic as you almost certainly have that all organised.

Making sure you have everything you need for the journey and first few weeks set aside is however essential. The packers are rather like a plague of locusts - they pack incredibly quickly and thoroughly, we found. It felt like I turned around and they were through entire rooms!

I think you have to expect to be stressed, and to make allowances for bad tempers etc.

Oh yes, warning your bank and credit card companies is essential. We had two of ours stopped when we moved the first time, and it was incredibly stressful.

I had my bank card cancelled by Nationwide a few years ago because they were suspicious of where I used it. As I was abroad I didn't find out until a month after they'd cancelled it (they wrote to my UK address and sent a new card there) When I realised and phoned them (which took forever to get sorted and cost a fortune they said they'd cancelled it due to the area I'd used it (in a bank in a mall?) and refused to send a new card to me abroad, only my UK address so I had no access to that account for 5 months.

My shipping has already gone, so I can stop worrying about that now. I took the things I couldn't live without, chucked a lot of stuff and put about 20 boxes of books and junk in my parents loft. I'll ship it over when I buy a house, in about 15yrs time probabably!

I hadn't thought about banking, I'll try and get something sorted this week. I have a NZ account with almost all my money in it but there might be a few things to pay into my UK one after I leave.

What about things you need to do when you arrive? Is it important to get out and meet people immediately? How do you find your way to the good playgrounds, shops, cafes? I'm starting uni in feb so meeting people isn't going to be a huge problem but I could have a lonely few weeks, just me and ds.

Well, huge generalisation I know but I've always found Kiwis to be friendly to a fault, so lots of little conversations in shops should keep the oh my God what have I done? moments to a minimum.

There could be community noticeboards in the local shopping centre or supermarket with notices for playgroups and coffee mornings and so forth.

Perhaps try to think of it less as a lonely few weeks for you and your son than as a time to bond. Actually I really enjoyed the time DH and I had in Shanghai before we got to know many people. It was really lovely being just the two of us. So lovely, in fact, that it's now just the three of us

LOL!

My top tip would be to take some travel adaptors with you. I arrived in Melboune three weeks ago and we have bought all of the ones in the DIY shop and they aren't getting any more for ages.

Also, our children had grown out of their sandals and we struggled to get any as we got here at the end of the sales and all of the 'back to school' stuff is in now. I had to get one pair from american e-bay!

think of it as going camping for the first 2 weeks. plan accordingly. keep that camping mindset for those first 2 wks.

Of course you won't be lonely. You will have to fight off me and MrsJC.

I got letters from my utilities saying what a good customer I was - waste of time. Don't bother doing this.

Thanks everyone!

I am getting slightly more excited and slightly less stressed. Couple of questions though...

What is melatonin?

If I start lectures on 23rd Feb, when would be the best date to start ds at preschool. I thought the 16th, so he can get settled in and I can do all the orientation stuff at uni, would even sooner than that be better? Maybe it would make things seem a bit more normal? I can't decide.

What do I need in my hand luggage? My bag is empty.

Do I need money for the stopover in Hong Kong? How much? It's only 2hrs.

What's the weather like in Chch just now? I heard a rumour that it was HOT.

melatonin is a chemical your body produces as a reaction to it getting dark - it makes you sleepy at the right time. I have bought it in tablet form in the US as a jeglag aid.

The preschool thing I think depends on what you have to do - if you have a lot of house sorting out etc. and feel that will be dull for ds then he can play all day at preschool. But if you are quite free it would be excellent weather to hit the beach and the playgrounds and have fun.

I wouldn't take any money for hong kong. Take the smallest denomination note of any currency you have and change it there if you need to. I changed $20NZ at singapore and it bought loads.

Christchurch is hot at the moment - but I am ill and missing it!

I was in Singapore airport for two hours and it was a really short time. By the time we had got off the plane, gone to the loo, found the gate and gone through security our flight was boarding. I thought we would have time to have something to eat!

good luck!
i am going to CAT you my contact details. don't hesitate to get in touch

it's blardy BOILING here

Mrs JC - can you send my details through too. I think I need to pay money.

Are you flying with Air NZ if you are having a 2 hour stopover in Hong Kong?
We did that a couple of weeks ago - you have to go through airport security between getting off the plane and being allowed into the airport. For us this took sooo long that we only had about 20 minutes in the airport before they starting reboarding the plane again!

The shops seem to take payment in pretty much any currency (we used both Euros and pounds) but they give you change in Chinese currency. So either pay by credit card or take small denomination notes.

There are lots of rather smart designer shops at the ariport plus a couple selling things like magazines, water, books and sweets.

We used melatonin to help us sleep on the plane and to cope with the jetlag afterwards. It really seemed to help.

Wish I was back in NZ right now. I miss the tuis! (birds, not beer!) < sniff >

Oh, and you have to take ALL your belongings off the plane at Hong Kong. I hadn't realised this.
Was rather inconvenient to have to pack everything up, lug it off the plane, carry it around, then lug it back on again.

yep, Air New Zealand. Sounds like the stopover is going to be a bit of a nightmare. At least we will get to properly stretch our legs though, walking up an down the aisle just isn't the same.

Hi beansmum - I dont have any advice im afraid but I will be watching this thread as we a moving to NZ on the 25th Feb. We are going to Wellington. I think you have spoken to me before on one of the other NZ threads. Am I right in thinking you are heading for the South Island?

I could do with tips as to how to survive the flight as well. My two dds are 4 and 22 months. I think the youngest is going to be a nighmare. I have been told to take a present for them to open every two hours to keep them amused. I have also been advised to use medised - but I am not sure about that!

If you have time to post after you arrive in NZ I would love to know how the flight went and what you think about NZ.

Yes, we're going to Christchurch. I am in complete denial about the flight, I'm just telling myself that ds will sleep the whole way there, we leave Heathrow at 9pm and he'll be exhausted. That could just mean that I have an exhausted and grumpy but completely awake child to entertain for a gazillion hours or however long it take to get there. Don't know why it has to be so far away.

I don't know when I'll be back online, my computer is going by air but it'll take a few days, but I'll let you know how we get on. Good luck!