Moving your life? The whole idea of packing for a year abroad is daunting: where do you start? How do you overcome personal baggage allowance restrictions when three pairs of your favourite underpants won't last a year? What is involved in sending baggage unaccompanied? How do you minimize the chances of things going wrong? Allow us to share our experience.
What is Project Koru? The code name of our "great escape" from our adopted home in the UK to spend a year living and working in New Zealand. You can find an introduction to the project here together with an explanation of why we chose the koru as the symbol for our journey.
Preparation
We were taking a holiday in China for three weeks prior to arriving in New Zealand. We thus had to decide what should come with us to China while the rest would travel directly to NZ. The China list was easy—based on our standard holiday packing list—but the NZ list was more complicated. What you might take can depend on several things:
- Are you renting furnished or unfurnished? We had to guess whether certain items would be supplied or not in the fully furnished accommodation we hoped to find.
- Is it a convenient excuse to "upgrade" electronics or renew your wardrobe? Maybe put anything you didn't wear in the previous year in a pile for Oxfam.
- Is it cheaper to airfreight (potentially both ways) than buy the item again?
- Can you actually get a replacement in another country?
- Are there things of personal or sentimental value you would take anyway?
Tip: Are you a two-computer family? Laptops are of course ideal for computing on the move, but become an expensive proposition when you up the spec (RAM, DVD burner, etc). So how do you combine genuine portability with the power to edit large files in Photoshop or burn DVDs in iMovie—and still have his and hers machines? We found both our needs could be satisfied by buying one low spec MacBook and one high spec Mac mini (also lightweight), for the price of one high spec MacBook alone.
Perhaps the best way to decide what should come and what should stay is to work around the house room-by-room. Depending on your circumstances you may make several lists for each room:
- Things to take with you as you journey;
- Things to send as cargo/ unaccompanied baggage;
- Things to put into safe storage (e.g. with relatives);
- Things to put into less-safe storage (e.g. remove tempting electronics etc. from plain view).
While doing this you might also like to:
- Produce an itemized list of anything of value (to calculate an appropriate insurance premium for your travel policy and for your contents policy on things that will stay and things that will need insuring abroad);
- Take digital photographs of everything (just in case your insurance company asks for evidence). We retained copies on a backup drive to leave in Europe.
Packing
We spent the better part of two days packing; this does not include the opportunistic putting out of items we thought we might need. The problem was not so much in choosing what to take, but in choosing what to leave behind or send cargo in order to meet the primary hurdle—the check-in allowance.
Tip: It sounds obvious, but don't leave packing to the last minute. We packed a week prior to departure to allow for collection of cargo, to buy new bags if required, and to leave free time for relaxation or last minute urgencies. Schedule the items on your to do list so there is almost nothing to be arranged in the last week.
Just prior to our outbound travel new hand luggage weight limits were imposed; presumably terrorists are unable to restrict themselves to carry-on luggage of 5 kg or less in a single bag. Although we were allowed 30 kg hold luggage each on the international leg, internal flights in China were limited to 20 kg per person.
Needless to say we had no trouble finding 50 kg of kit to take with us to China (not all of it, such as official documents, required for the trip). If you were traveling direct, say from the UK to NZ, it's likely you would pack differently. This left a 70 kg pile of assorted clothing and equipment that we had to get to NZ by other means. While it's true that hold luggage is restricted more by the cost of excess baggage than by the actual weight, we were making quite a number of internal flights and didn't want the unpredictable cost or the hassle of handling extra bags (the number of bags isn't limited; the max limit being 30 kg per bag). Fifty kilos distributed in 5 bags was quite enough to manage:
Accompanied baggage: 50 kg was soon reached.
Unaccompanied baggage
We divided our 70 kg into a 30 kg hard case, a 20 kg hard case, and a 20 kg soft bag—all with combination locks to avoid the possibility of lost keys. Although we took some care to pack the more fragile items carefully, we had been told that unaccompanied baggage is at less risk of damage than ordinary hold luggage. This is because airfreight is apparently man-handled from place to place, and does not get thrown about on luggage chutes and conveyor belts like hold luggage does. Believe it or not!
We looked at two airfreight alternatives. Air New Zealand Cargo (0208 7515000) charge £13 per kilo for unaccompanied baggage if you are not a passenger on any leg. If you are traveling with Air New Zealand on any leg a photocopy of your ticket will secure a discounted rate of £4.20 per kilo under 45 kg or £4.00 per kg for baggage over 45 kg. To this add handling charges, security fees, documentation fees, and customs fees of £58 and, at the NZ end, customs handling charges of perhaps $NZ40. The cargo agent is open 24 hrs and just a 10 minute drive from Heathrow's passenger terminals. They said we could front up with the cases, spend 20 mins on paperwork, and that to cover our time in China they could delay sending our cases for 2 weeks but we would be liable for expensive storage in NZ for a further week.
Amber Worldwide (01932 780080) were recommended to us by Air NZ Cargo if we preferred a door-to-door service. They charge £160 for the first 20 kg then £5 per subsequent kilo. Incidentally they also offer an air-to-air service (you deliver your baggage to and collect from the airport), with rates at £2.75 per kg plus a £45 handling fee and NZ local charges (allow $NZ100). They were willing to hold our baggage in the UK and freight it so that it arrived a day or two behind us in Wellington without the need for storage charges.
Tip: Remember to check your unaccompanied baggage is insured, as no insurance is offered by Air New Zealand or by Amber. Your travel insurance policy may cover items accompanying you only, and only those items you have specified over a certain value. Your home and contents policy may cover items "normally kept" in the home.
Unaccompanied baggage: 70 kg gets expensive.
We decided that Amber would offer the best service, and we liked the idea of paying one company to take door-to-door responsibility. We spoke on the phone and exchanged e-mail several times to confirm the arrangements. Amber required four items of paperwork:
- A letter authorizing the NZ agent (Multi-Freight Ltd.) to act on our behalf in the customs clearance process;
- Packing lists for each case (detailing date and price at purchase for non-clothes items);
- A completed MAF/ customs declaration form (NZCS 218);
- A passport photocopy.
Failed collection
We attached the paperwork and a note of the lock combinations to the side of one of the cases, as advised. Amber were supposed to collect our bags on the afternoon of September 14, 2 days before our departure to China. They didn't turn up and when contacted denied all knowledge of us. I forwarded the e-mail to prove it was "all arranged" and they promised to pick up by 12 noon next day. A van driver turned up promptly the next morning, with no paperwork other than a job number. He agreed to sign a receipt describing the bags, the collection and delivery point, and noted his name, the job number, and vehicle registration number. Had he not come, Plan B had been to drive to London and back (an 8 hour trip we could do without) in order to deliver our bags directly to Air New Zealand.
Despite leaving a mobile phone number and an e-mail address we were using in China and on arrival in NZ, we received no confirmation that the UK agent had even received our bags or indeed any other information (such as how much they were charging our credit card)—not until we specifically asked for it, nearly a month later!
Tip: Our experience highlights the wisdom of leaving time up your sleeve for contingencies. Insist on written confirmation of any details discussed by phone. Make sure you get receipts at every opportunity.
Delayed delivery
Before leaving we were told (on the phone—again nothing written) we should have our baggage on the Monday after our Saturday arrival in Wellington. On ringing the local agent that Monday evening we were told they knew of no consignment using the job number we quoted, nor of any planned delivery to our Wellington address. By the Wednesday we had confirmation our consignment was in the country but hadn't cleared customs—as no documentation was received by the agent. They were to check the bags at the warehouse (on being informed documents were attached to the case). We were told the best case scenario was that they would clear customs Thursday morning and be trucked down from Auckland to arrive Friday; they would phone ahead so there was no further need to wait in for delivery.
When the agent got to the warehouse they were able to find the MAF declaration, but the packing lists were apparently missing. Luckily I had kept copies and was able to e-mail these to the agent to present to customs. On the Monday of the following week Multi-Freight rang to confirm customs clearance, and that the driver would phone prior to delivery Tuesday morning. He did phone, 5 minutes prior to ringing the door bell. Our unaccompanied baggage was with us at last—10 days after we arrived ourselves. So much for coordinated delivery.
Tip: Make sure you keep copies of all completed paperwork, in paper form so they can be faxed if necessary and in electronic form so they can be e-mailed (storing them on a USB key is a good idea, since you can send them from an Internet café if you don't yet have home access). Don't send things you will need in the first week or two unaccompanied; if your baggage is delayed you'll miss them (chargers for electric shavers, warm clothes, for example).
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