Whether you buy too much overseas (guilty!), carry too much luggage (guilty!) or you are moving back to the Antipodes after your big O.E. (not guilty on this charge, your honour) having a good moving company for all your little treasures is very important!
Kelly here; as the big sister, I organised Lisa’s boxes as our house was fast becoming to resemble a library and I didn’t fancy every Tom, Dick and Harry knocking on my front door trying to borrow a book or three. We needed boxes fast so I went straight onto twitter asking for advice on moving companies and Anglo Pacific came back to me!
Through a quick phone call to access how many treasures Lisa was transporting back to New Zealand (apparently Lisa only needed one box!) and then adding another three boxes for good measure, I received a quote which we confirmed along with the delivery time for the boxes.
The boxes were delivered very quickly along with bubble wrap (pop pop pop!) and copious amounts of tape – everything you need bar a pair of scissors.
Then it was packing time, but first just to show you how big the boxes are – here’s a photo of Lisa inside the box (Lisa is 5’10 in case you wondering – the boxes are great for transporting Kiwi’s home when you can’t afford the airline ticket with Air New Zealand).
When packing make sure you list everything as you go and label each box – it’s difficult to remember what is in each box after you have taped those babies all up! It wasn’t too hard for us as it was books, shoes, books, souvenirs, books and more books.
We called the lovely folks at Anglo Pacific for pick up (all super duper easy) and then you just need to email across your paperwork along with a copy of your passport details.
Now over to young Lisa…
Patience is a virtue they say but after what became 9 weeks since a gentleman in a white van loaded and zipped away with my boxes and suitcase (after jokingly asking if I had a sink in one of the boxes) I couldn’t wait a moment more – 6 months of travelling around Europe and one last shopping spree in England had left me with a lot of treasures I was chapping at the bit to play with.
A week before the boxes we due to arrive though we received more documents from NZ customs to fill in before they could be cleared. Questions such as the exact items in the boxes, date of purchase and price paid in NZ dollars bought me out in hives especially when I had packed all my dockets in one of the aforementioned boxes. I think this paperwork should be sent at the same time as the documentation you fill in at the beginning of the process because after that many weeks it was like playing the ‘conveyor belt’ from the Generation Game trying to even remember what was in the boxes in detail.
Once the paperwork was filled in with a little help from the guys and girls at New Zealand Vanlines (the NZ company that fulfils the NZ end of the process) the wait began again.
The following week as the ship arrived in Tauranga we waited for my boxes to pass through customs and make their way to Auckland. Unfortunately this is where I started to get a little disappointed with NZ Vanlines.
We had seen my boxes were cleared for delivery but they still hadn’t turned up. With some more calls to NZ Vanlines we found they only delivered to certain areas of Auckland once a week we were told and I had just missed my day so I would have to wait a week while my treasures languished at their offices (half an hour down the motorway I might add). Finally we found a lovely gentleman at Vanlines who organised another lovely gentleman called Randall to go out of his way to personally deliver my treasures late one Friday night.
The boxes were still in good condition and only one item didn’t make it (my bobble head Pope lost his head – but he has been fixed). And then the fun began…
Packing Tips when shipping your treasures homes
- You can never have too much tape
- Use shower caps that you have pinched from posh hotels to cover your shoes (but make sure those shoes are cleaned first as dirt is a big NO NO!)
- Get cheap zipper bags to hold items in the box and keep them dry; also make sure you keep your books in bags to keep them from getting damaged
- If you are heading to NZ just know you can’t have liquids in your boxes and if you decide to ship wooden products be prepared to get the boxes fumigated (an additional cost!)
- Try and send your boxes weeks before leaving the UK to save yourself such a long wait…
Have you used Anglo Pacific before – what are your thoughts on their service? Click right here to get an instant quote online.
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xx
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