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Thread: Things I can’t bring to NZ?

  1. #1
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    Default Things I can’t bring to NZ?

    Packing up the whole house and shipping everything on a boat to Wellington. Anything I CANT bring? I realize things like household cleaners and plants aren’t good to bring, but I feel like I’m missing something.

  2. #2
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    This page https://www.customs.govt.nz/personal...tricted-items/ and the sidebar will help.

  3. #3
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    That’s useful. Thank you!

  4. #4
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    And here's an old thread which may be helpful if you're planning to bring ANYTHING which may have the possibility of carrying any life-forms with it. (What used to be called MAF is now the Ministry for Primary Industries - MPI - and the same things apply.) https://www.enz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=34791

  5. #5
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    If I might push this not exactly off-topic, bus somewhat parallel-topic: what about electrical goods? Are there any NZ particularities (I think I just invented a word) one needs to watch out for? We were a bit spoiled in moving back-and-forth between the UK and Hong Kong several times, because both use the same plugs & sockets and electricity supply. I know about the New Zealand plugs, at least on the outside - but are they earthed? What sort of power supply do NZ electrical providers pump into your home? Is it simply a matter of changing plugs, or are adaptors needed? Obviously, moving from HK to NZ we would prefer to just bring appliances with us (and this would essentially be the same as taking white goods from the UK to NZ if anyone has any experience with that).

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  7. #7
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Skenema999 View Post
    Packing up the whole house and shipping everything on a boat to Wellington. Anything I CANT bring? I realize things like household cleaners and plants aren’t good to bring, but I feel like I’m missing something.
    First of all, congratulations on your move! I'll relate our experience, in case it helps at all:

    We just did this from the US -> NZ. NZ Customs is very strict about biosecurity, etc, for good reason. As you can see on the link JandM provided, it states you declare (among other things) any and all items that have come in contact with soil/garden stuff (tents, hiking boots, garden tools, outdoor furniture, etc). We washed them and scrubbed them within an inch of their lives, and then packed them all in boxes/packaging that linked back to our manifest, so that if Customs wanted to have a look, we could say "Camping gear is in boxes 23-30." We also had the worldwide shippers put any boxes that might need opening near the doors of the container, so that they could easily be inspected.
    We also brought what leftover over-the-counter medicines we had lying around, such as ibuprofen and allergy pills.

    And NZ Customs did indeed, want have a look at all of the above. It all went smoothly thanks to preparation. Finding a bottle of aspirin would have been like a needle in a haystack had we not noted where we had put the OTC meds.

    There were additional fees for holding the shipment and cleaning one or two items on our behalf, but we'd expected that. Definitely leave wiggle room in the budget for getting your things here.

    You may need to be very vigilant during the packing process - we had to shepherd the moving process and double-check the paperwork several times to make sure things were properly marked, batteries and toner cartridges were out of devices, etc.
    As to electrical devices, the link JandM provided is helpful. We brought our computer/iPad/Phones and chargers, and electric toothbrushes, but otherwise, we shopped around and bought NZ appliances to replace our old ones. Between the US dollar conversion, finding sale prices, and the cost of rewiring or buying step-up/down transformers, it was cheaper to replace everything.

    Just FYI .... hope it helps. Good luck with the move!

  8. #8
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    Ditto on the biosecurity front. We brought a 20ft container from Canada to NZ in 2012. Our household goods included a few things that MPI/MAF were keenly interested in: camping gear, patio furniture, bicycle, motorcycle, garden tools. We scrubbed everything with cleaner and in a lot of instances left the (non-destructive) cleaning agent on, so everything "smelled" clean. MPI/MAF cleared our stuff for delivery a couple of days after our container was shifted from Tauranga to Auckland.

    An easy way to think about it is anything that might have contact with the outdoors is on their radar. If you can't get it really clean, see how expensive it would be to buy new here in NZ.

    Exciting time! Woo hoo!

  9. #9
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    And besides anything that might have contact with the outdoors, bear in mind dark corners under/inside furniture, which need to be vacuumed so you don't carry along e.g. spiders or chrysalises.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
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    Two questions...is there a dollar limit on how much you can import as your used household contents when you first move to NZ? I am struggling to estimate how much our goods are worth for insurance purposes, and I'm wondering if it matters at all to customs.

    Second, any idea how much it costs when customs cleans items for you? Everything in our storage has had a layer of grit/dust blown over it from the crack under the rolling door...ugh.

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