Experience of not shipping any furniture...

[Flutterby]

Well we have been here a year and the total value of all our furniture is probably about $300. actually i'm very tempted to sit down and add it all up.
Most of it is secondhand but there are a few new items (like my daughters new desk) I'm quite happy to put a little effort in to tidy a piece of furniture up and "make it my own" and feel that the time spent doing that is probably equal to the time and effort of researching and haggling prices plus all the petrol costs of running around the stores must add up.
Its nice to have the furniture around even if its not in tip top brand new condition and this way we can replace items with the perfect pieces we fall in love with little by little and probably still sell the old item for the same or more than we paid for it.
I think the most expensive item we've bought so far was our Queen bed at approximately $70.
Theres only two pieces of furniture that i regret not bringing, my daughters toddler bed (which was ironically a freebie from Freecycle) and the desk i made for GCSE at school, those items had sentimental value which cannot be replaced.

[NickB]

We shipped everything and found it a real advantage. Although we had to wait for the boat to arrive it was a great feeling to have the entire house furnished the day after the truck arrived - without all the hassle of wandering around shops.

What we did wrong however was to buy a whole bunch of wardrobes, chests of drawers etc from Ikea before we left the UK - only to discover that kiwi houses generally have a lot of storage built in. But we did get good prices for them all on Trademe

What we did right - open all the Ikea packages and retaped them up before departing, so we did not get hit for tax on them.

The other thing we did right - reject the extortionate shipping insurance quote the UK removers put in front of us on moving day and went with a Kiwi specialist insurer instead (www.orbitprotect.com) - saved loads.

[Bobbo]

Well we have been here a year and the total value of all our furniture is probably about $300. actually i'm very tempted to sit down and add it all up.

Wow that's good going! Well done you!

[originalname]

This topic interests me. I don't know what I'd do. We have a mix of tat from early ''first bought a house'' days and some nicer things from more selective times. Is there quite a variety of shops (price and style wise) for furniture shopping in NZ?
I heard toyota pickups (and similar) were quite hard to come by (or expensive) in NZ and as we were thinking of purchasing a lifestyle property with land, a pickup truck etc would be useful so were going to research how sensible it would be to ship one over...??

[JandM]

I suggest you use Google - enter e.g. 'Toyota pickups NZ' and 'furniture stores NZ' and have a browse of what shows up. Also, have a look at what's around on trademe, for the second-hand market.

[girlwithanewf]

Originalname - if you are thinking about purchasing a vehicle specifically to ship over you need to look at the logistics of this very carefully. You will need to have owned the vehicle for a certain length of time prior to shipping and it needs to be compliant with NZ regulations. I can't remember the specific details but a google search will no doubt bring up the latest regulations.

[originalname]

Thanks girlwithanewf and jandm, will have a look at your suggestions x

[Bobbo]

[QUOTE=originalname;378005] Is there quite a variety of shops (price and style wise) for furniture shopping in NZ?
QUOTE]

Nope!! Furniture seems to range from not very cheap tat (flimsier than the cheapest IKEA options) to mahoosively expensive but very nice stuff! But I'm basing that on my area, living around Auckland perhaps there is a wider choice...