One of the perks of waiting two months for your life to arrive by boat is that everything seems new, and it is, New Zealand New but more about that later.
It’s been a while since the last blog and it’s not been because there’s nothing to report, just no time to report it. Since our ship came in most of my days have been spent unpacking. I have to say that the packers did an impressive job wrapping and boxing our life. I guess there’s a reason you hire professionals (when you can afford it).
We knew our goods were being sent in a container on a ship, but that really doesn’t do it justice. Within the container are wooden boxes (probably 10’ x 6’ x6’) and my guess is that the container holds four of them. Boxes and furniture are loaded into the wooden boxes and then the wooden boxes are loaded into the container for a pretty cozy fit.
While we had a crew of about eight people on the move crew in Columbus, there were two Maori gentlemen who were responsible for unloading our life in Mt Pleasant. We had experience with a mover called Two Guys and a Truck in Columbus and they were a complete disaster. I don’t want to compare apples and oranges but our two Maori guys were awesome. In about six hours they had everything off the truck and in the house in one piece.
As I’ve had intimate experience with unpacking the packed boxes, you appreciate the task at hand and problems with the process. Movers in Columbus pack everything room by room. In the interests of keeping things from shifting, the boxes are filled with balled up paper and the movers label boxes as they see the items, not as you know them. Related items stay together only as space in the box allows and once the box leaves home, there’s no guarantee in what order it will come out of the truck in New Zealand.
Christmas in New Zealand started with the unboxing. If you’re unpacking all day, there are things you look forward to, music being a big one for me as I plug through the day. I was extremely excited to find my I-Pod docking station in one of the first boxes I opened. Finding the plug and remote for the station wasn’t so easy. The movers take things out of the truck and you think you know what’s in the box and have them put it in the appropriate room. That’s where that labeling issue comes in. It took me four days and seventy boxes before I found the necessary equipment for music.
It’s pretty amazing to see how your possessions will translate to a new house. All in all we’ve had a pretty amazing conversion. Having said that, our house over-runneth. In the interests of good taste and common sense an essential part of the process has been re-packing what we have no room for. I’ll consider it a good sign that what came over in 160 boxes has only led to the re-packing of a dozen.
On to New Zealand New; there are no cars manufactured in New Zealand. The big car dealers are Toyota, Ford, Mitsubishi, Holden, etc. New cars from a dealer are very expensive, with used cars being a lot more reasonable. In earlier blogs we detailed that we bought a Yaris and that car was New Zealand New. It was used in Japan, bought by Toyota New Zealand, re-conditioned, and sold as New Zealand New. I guess that now all our worldly belongings are New Zealand New.
Cheers,
Jon
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