Shipping Belongings

[Gubbs]

This may sound a bit stupid but i am looking at shipping things like Kids toys, bikes, some house hold appliances just the genral belonging my family have here in England what we wish to bring to New Zealand. I also want to ship out mine and my son motorcross bikes. I thought this would be a matter of getting a company who ships over to New Zealand taking all the stuff to the port loading it into a container and then off it goes. Once i get to New Zealand go to the port pick it all up. Is this not how it works, is it going to be more complicated then that.

[JandM]

In most cases, the company collects from your house in the UK, very often bringing the container and packing it right there. When it gets to the other end, your things are delivered, if that's what you have arranged, or you fix for another company to fetch them, or put them in storage, or whatever suits. The possible complication at the NZ end is that MAF (NZ bio-security) are going to want to inspect any items of your which have the potential to harbour life, particularly things that have been used or stored outdoors. You need to have cleaned everything very thoroughly to make sure there is no soil or other dirt that can contain bacteria, seeds, plant or insect life. If it's clean, MAF will pass it, or otherwise they will fumigate it at your expense. MAF make a charge for every package they have to open and inspect, so it's important that all the packages have the contents thoroughly listed, then it will be obvious which ones have the items in they need to look at - they'll look at anything that MIGHT be suspect, e.g. a package labelled 'miscellaneous'.

There are lots of old threads about MAF inspections and cleaning ready for them - they'll come up if you do a Search.

[Manks]

Talk to a shipping company to get some ideas. As JandM says, most people ship door-to-door. It's less hassle for you, helps you get through customs/biosecurity processes and is just less stressful when you're going through a pretty stressful time.

There are other options though and other people have driven to the port or the moving company's premises - but this usually happens when there's not a lot of gear.

Also some people will do door-to-port, where the movers come and pack you up, but once your container has arrived at the port at this end and cleared customs, you make alternative arrangements to pick it up.

You can ship the bikes but there are probably extra requirements that you will need to meet with those. Plus you'll have to clean them THOROUGHLY with no signs of mud or outdoor life on them. Same goes for anything that might be used outside - bicycles, walking boots, horse riding gear, camping gear etc.

[Gubbs]

cheers thanks for your help