Shipping Container UK to NZ

[Cherry]

Hi there

I am looking for other peoples experiences on shipping containers from the UK to New Zealand as we have just received a quote back from a company for a massive £3500! We have estimated that our belongings total to roughly £7/8,000 therefore we thought it would be worthwhile sending everything over but then 3 and a half grand is alot of money! Can anyone recommend a cheaper shipping company?

I then thought about only sending some things over, the more expensive things i.e, electrical equipment and smaller personal items but have no idea how much that would cost! Has anyone done it this way by just sending some items over?

Thank you! JC

[pitkennedy]

We used a company called Ewe Pack. They were very reasonable, we checked out pprox costs on chests but it wasn't worth it. If you do go for a container I would recommend you fill it. It is expensive, but to be honest, there is certain items here that is expensive so therefore it would be in your best interest to bring what you can. Even things you think maybe not worth much, you would be surprised.
Our container was a 20ft one, and it was £3,000 from Manchester to Tauranga.

[Mamee & Co]

Hi Cherry

Whilst you can come light, and some do we were shocked when we eventually tallied up the replacement costs of the goods in our container. We had thought about not shipping, but there was no way we would leave our collection of books and personal stuff behind. When we did a rough sum of second hand values, less cost of replacement in NZ it was definitely a far higher cost than shipping and a lot more hassle.

Even moving 250 miles in the UK cost us £2500 for a full pack, so we figured the figure we were quoted for shipping a 40ft container half way round the world was good value.

But it is a personal decision, but if you are going to bring more than the suitcases with you it is definitely good to do a tally of what it will cost. Also to be aware that most rentals here are without furniture.

[girlwithanewf]

We used a company called Clark and Rose based in Stirling, who would be worth asking for a quote maybe. Not sure how much you are intending to bring, but perhaps a part shipment where you share a container may be possible if you don't have sufficient to fill a 20ft? The actual shipping from the UK to NZ isn't actually the expensive part, it is the labour packing everything at both ends and transferring to the docks.

Best wishes.

[Cherry]

Great! Thanks! After reading these we have decided its definitely worthwhile using a shipping company, i also think it will give us some great comfort if we get homesick having our own belongings and furniture from home - maybe a little sad i know, but i can see myself being a blubbering mess the first couple of months in New Zealand.

I can see this forum being my rock during our move! Thank you all for your kind help!

Jen x

[JulieWM]

I think it is worth shipping all the belongings you want to keep over to NZ. We were going to sell or give away a lot of our cheap IKEA furniture - computer desk, wardrobe, 2 chest of draws, small book shelf etc. But decided in the end to take it all with us. Can I just say that I am so happy we did! We also brought our super king bed over too. Well worth it. Furniture replacement out here is not cheap, and you would have to spend lots of time shopping around. If you buy on TradeMe, then you'd need a van to pick up the items, not to mention the gas money to get there. Just a lot of hassle. Bring everything over. I feel happy that I am surrounded by my familiar home items in a new country.
We packed all our personal items ourselves, and left the packers (we used Anglo Pacific) to do all the fragile items and furniture. They did a good job - nothing broke, however they used a lot of paper to wrap one single item, so you end up with more boxes that end up taking up a lot of precious container space.

I think we paid around 2000 pounds for the shipping... and maybe 500 for insurance. The MAF/Customs fee was around NZ$200 at the end. Don't quote me on all of those figures. I think i've purposefully forgotten the exact figures because I disliked them so much and felt resentful about paying all that money! Anyway, it's all over now.

Tempted to attach a photo of the mountain of paper that came out of all our boxes!

[Wooly_Cow]

Simple rule..bring everything you can. We just sold a UK bunk bed and 10 year old faded sofa bed on Trademe for embarrassing prices. There is a general lack of good quality reasonably priced furniture here. Plenty of top quality high end designer stuff....or cheap crap but nothing really in between.

... and you are correct, there is nothing better for getting you settled than all your old stuff.

[Starkus71]

I agree with Wooly Cow - bring everything and if you can go shopping before coming out. If your stuck for space you may want to consider leaving wardrobes behind - most of the rentals we looking at had in-built wardrobes. Although v. few had fridges so if you have an intergrated fridge at home you'll have to get one over here.

Its v easy to underestimate how better you'll settle in with your own stuff around you, shipping is v. stressful at the time but when your container arrivers its makes the whole process a bit easier.

Also I wouldn't have liked to arrive not knowing the country, people, shopping culture and having to start from scratch buying everything to replace the items we left behind.

[tianiax]

Totally agree with everyone, our container arrived just before christmas so was great to have all our stuff. Few things we did regret not bringing though, bed and tumble dryer were quite old but still functional & we left them behind. Electrical stuff particully costs alot more than the UK and are no where near the same quality. We just bought a washing machine here for nearly $1000 that is only a base model and would probably have been 200 quid at home.
Also avoid Clarke and Rose, we used them and they hadnt secured the load correctly so loads of movement during shipping = lots of broken stuff. Heard much better things about Crown, they did our unpack here but also operate out of Aberdeen I think.

[4togo]

Now North America seems a bit closer to NZ than GB, but I'll be very surprised to see a quote for our shipping coming in for under 15000-20000 Canadian (roughly 9500 bp).