we had our first estimate for our move by allied international today. very professional and gave a strong sense that they had experience with nz moves. it won’t be cheap, but it could have been much worse. thanks to w’s global war or terror boogieman customs won’t accept any boxes that have not been professionally packed and inventoried. so that adds a big chunk to the tally. it does save us a lot of time and worries but not only do i hate paying someone for something as simple as putting stuff in a box more emotionally frustrating is not being able to start and feel like we making progress. i was looking forward to start seeing parts of the house empty out as they got packed. this would also make it more obvious what we need to sell or put in storage.
the other challenge is that allied’s estimate was for 9776 lbs / 1348 cubic ft. anything over 6500 lbs / 1000 cubic ft requires a 40′ container. if we can slim down to a 20′ container the cost drops by $3,000.
not obvious yet what to do here. since we don’t know where we will be living we don’t know how much space we will have. no sense in bringing stuff that doesn’t fit only to have to sell it or store it in nz. but we keep hearing loud and clear from recent immigrants that if it is something that you will need in nz it make much more sense to ship it rather than buying new in nz.
expected transit time 40 to 55 days. with packing currently targeted for early august this means that i have to our housing lined up before the jboss and gromit arrive in early october. and that jackie will miss all the fun of the container unload.
even with my dna to want to do things myself this is one area i don’t know how folks do it on their own. a huge stack of confusing forms for multiple countries and dealing with shady container shipping companies. one family reported opening the door to the container at delivery and having water pour out. no thanks.