Hi Paul,
Sorry I can't answer your specific question, other than to say our local guy said approximately £2,500 to send to NZ a 20ft container that we'd packed ourselves!
We've beeen looking into this 'buying & packing our own container' issue.
Because we.ve just sold (STC) our house and don't think we shall be going to NZ for at least 6 months, we thought we'd buy the container now to pack & store all our stuff in it, as we'll be moving into rented for 6 months and won't need much of it.
Our local overseas shipper said that the container we buy would be great for storage for 6 months as they would charge about £30 per week to store, but when it comes time to actually ship our belongings, our container would be emptied into a container sent by the shipping company and that we'd have about 3 hours to transfer everything. (Our local shipper also said he'd buy our container from us, if it was OK, for storage in his own yard.)
The question I didn't ask was and that's worrying me is the inventory. I know I can make a list of everything in the boxes, and number or letter them, but what about the furniture, lawn mower, washing machine etc.
Can anyone help, perhaps give me an idea as to how you listed all your belongings? How much detail do you have to give as to what is in every box etc? I have to start packing soon and I'd like to do it all properly the first time. I really don't want to repack everything in 6 months time.
Thanks in anticipation.
Ali