Please recommend shipping companies UK > NZ

July 19, 2023 1:07 AM

Can you please recommend a shipping company in the sweet spot between reliable and affordable?

You wonderful people have helped us on the way to making this big move. We don't have a great deal to ship - just boxes of clothing, trinkets and a few other bits and bobs, and a couple of larger musical items (no furniture or anything large). Please recommend a shipping company (and any to avoid!) Thank you again.

posted by Carravanquelo to Travel & Transportation (3 answers total)

I moved UK -> NZ 9 years ago. And imported both my campervan in one container, and all my personal belongings (enough to fill another 20ft container).

I would not recommend 'Crown Relocations' for personal belongings at the UK side at least for the following:

I had all my belongings packed in a shipping container storage place, that I pre-warned them was outside, and not indoor nor sheltered. It happened to be raining they day they arranged in the UK.

I was already in NZ when arranging the shipping, so had a friend be on-site all day in case of questions.

I already had most of my smaller belongings in 64ltr plastic boxes. But as I used to have a hotel I had a bunch of bedding and towels I was moving over too (in heavy duty bin bags).

The movers managed to get access to an empty container on-site, because apparently the sheets & towels needed to be repacked into their own (charged) cardboard boxes before loading it into the actual shipping container.

But in doing the repack, they had clearly ripped open plastic bags of bedding within my container, carried them openly through the rain to the empty unit, and then repacked & refolded into their own cardboard boxes. So much of the bedding arrived damp even the months later it took to arrive.

They also spilt inkjet printer ink on a bunch of some as new bedding (that was also in plastic bags prior), and had damaged that printer too (broken pieces and seemingly flipped upside down at some point)..

Plus in refolding and repacking my towels into a new box, they even managed to pack in a live mouse, that during the journey had eaten a tunnel through a bunch of towels within the sealed box.

The NZ side unpacking crew was okay. They were quick and efficient at unloading, and my pre-labeled boxes was easy to direct to kitchen / bedroom / lounge, etc.

One slight annoyance was that after unloading the container to my house at the time, they offered 'for free' to take away all the now empty cardboard boxes I'd paid extra for. Nope.

I the grand scheme of things though, it was all largely okay.

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For some international moving recommendations:
- itemise as many items as you can in each box, and keep a digital copy you can email, for NZ customs to review for as the container arrives so they can release it. (any tents, gardening equipment, etc, that may have plant pieces attached, they'll want to see in person that they're completely clean, before you can unpack those boxes. Or you may need for customs to have them professionally sterilised).
- Pack things yourself in labelled plastic boxes or size alike cardboard boxes as much as you can. Thus reducing any chance of other people repacking badly.
- Many things are still a lot cheaper in the UK than NZ, so once you reach a certain volume of things you're shipping (ie a 10ft or 20ft container full) keeping those 230-240v appliances / tools / mattress and such and bringing those over with you (and simply changing the plug) is likely to be cheaper than selling/donating in the UK and planning to purchase new within NZ.
posted by many-things at 3:41 PM on July 19, 2023 [1 favorite]

Read the small print? In 2005 (! ymmv) my son shipped a similar load from Christchurch NZ to Dublin IE for a reasonable price (€200? ). That was cost to dockside. It cost almost as much for the shippers to move his stuff to a public-facing warehouse on the ring-road where we could pick it up. Otherwise the move worked well. Neither of us can remember the company.
posted by BobTheScientist at 3:56 AM on July 20, 2023

This is not a strong recommendation, but when I moved London->Wellington in 2013 I used Anglo Pacific (https://www.anglopacific.co.uk/). I don't remember them being exceptional, but I don't remember having any problems with them, and they would have been competitive price-wise as I tend to look for lower prices. Was probably moving a similar amount and type of goods to you. Also, I agree with many-things' recommendation to ship small appliances if you end up with spare room.
posted by Pink Frost at 2:32 PM on July 20, 2023