Mistakes We Made Moving to New Zealand
My husband, 10 month old baby, and I moved to Auckland, New Zealand during the MIDDLE of the pandemic in 2021.
Yes, the borders were closed, and it was a very long and annoying process but even with all the hard work it was worth it in the end! So now this is me writing out the mistakes we made during the move over and tips for the things we did well to hopefully help anyone else moving to New Zealand.
MISTAKES
1. Moving during the pandemic
This isn’t an issue so much anymore, but for us it is the bulk of my memories of the move over. Everything was made so hard and horrifically long all because of the pandemic and closed border and MIQ. So my first recommendation for everyone was to wait if you had the choice. But now MIQ (managed isolation quarantine - two week stay locked in a hotel room) is a thing of the past and things are slooooowly starting to get back to normal! So come on over!
2. Housing
If you’ve been to New Zealand before and have explored the different areas and generally know where you’d like to live, I would highly recommend you to arrange your housing situation before you get here.
But for us that wasn’t the case at all. We’d never stepped foot in the country before, so we really wanted a chance to get a feel for the different areas and suburbs before we signed contracts. Plus there is always the iffy part of signing for a place without meeting the property managers and seeing the place with your own eyes.
So we thought we would find a place after a week in an Airbnb.
WRONG.
Please do yourself the favor and book yourself an airbnb for a month. Because moving countries and settling into a new place is so stressful and I really wish we had given ourselves that time.
Because it can take a lot of time.
3. Moving in to an unfurnished place over a holiday weekend
Okay - this happens to be a very unfortunate and rare situation for us, but we happened to get the keys to our place over a long holiday weekend.
We were so excited! After all the stress of moving and hauling everything around we were home!
What we didn’t know or have on our radar at all were the New Zealand holidays. It kind of came as a shock to us that EVERYTHING WAS CLOSED. Because apparently here in New Zealand they have a lot of holidays and they tend to take them seriously.
We spent the entire weekend sleeping on the floor, with no fridge, or washer, or couch, etc.
It was not fun.
Not sure how helpful this will be for the majority, but I really wish we had known about it before!
4. Paperwork
Another huge tip I would give is having your paperwork all in order! It makes the first few months over here so much easier.
Papers we needed all the time:
Passport as form of ID (our American driver’s license meant nothing to anyone here)
Proof of address
Bonus - References to previous rentals
Anytime we went anywhere to do anything they wanted our passport - setting up our phones, the internet, getting a bank account, etc.
Another thing that probably only applies to a small handful of the population - but we had such a hard time because we didn’t have proof of address before coming to New Zealand. It was the year of Covid and we were living with family while we waited for the green light to come over, so we didn’t have any sort of utility bills, rental agreements, NOTHING to prove that we were normal, responsible humans. So when we would try opening a bank account it took us twice as long and three times as much stress because they needed it and we couldn’t provide it.
Same thing with getting our rental house. They kept wanting some proof of address from before but we didn’t have it.
Eventually you kind of work out an agreement with whomever you’re speaking with, but if you can, do yourself a solid and SORT YOUR PAPERWORK.
Especially your passport and proof of address.
Just to reiterate again - your driver’s license means nothing. You can’t even use it to buy alcohol from the grocery store.
Bonus is if you can get your references to previous rentals. When you’re trying to get a place it’s best to have it all in order so you can quickly and easily submit it because the rental situation here is a bit of a jungle.
For example our place we looked at had five other families there at the same time. We had our papers submitted that night and lucky for us we got it.
5. International Credit Card
We had an international credit card before moving here and it saved us a lot of money!
When you’re in a different country and you use a card that doesn’t have that feature, every transaction you do incurs a fee.
And when you’re moving in you are making a lot of transactions.
You’re buying a fridge, a bed, a couch, a rug, groceries for the fridge and stocking up a new pantry, a car, gas, coffees with all these new people you’re meeting, trips to explore all the new stuff around you, takeout for the nights you don’t have the energy to cook, etc.
For us it took three weeks to open a bank account (again, the no proof of address was a nightmare) so having that international credit card helped save us from three weeks of daily transaction fees.
Highly recommended!
6. How Much Stuff We Brought
We tried to do the move as cheaply as possible, so everything we brought over we brought in our suitcases.
And it was too much.
The actual trip over was so incredibly miserable and stressful and exhausting because we had our baby and ourselves and 24 hours of travel, but also TEN BAGS on top of that.
We had belts strapping three suitcases together and carseats and bags precariously balanced on top of the suitcase trains.
I’m still a bit traumatized from that trip. Next time I travel I want to bring absolutely nothing!
And the best part was once we got here we realized half of the stuff was junk anyway..
Which leads me to my next point.
7. What to Bring/What Not to Bring
WHAT WE SHOULDN’T HAVE BROUGHT
First! DO NOT bring any sort of electronics that don’t have converter boxes.
I knew beforehand that the outlet shapes were different. I didn’t realize the voltage was different. So anything that is just a plug-in will get fried! Some examples of things we brought over that we either ruined or realized we couldn’t use:
Hair clippers
Immersion blender
Curling iron
Straightener
Things that will work:
Laptop chargers
Phone chargers
Anything with the little converter box built into the cord
Something else we brought with the best of intentions was a toilet bidet (because once you go bidet you never go back). I was actually heartbroken to find that the piping sizes are different here so it was worthless to us now.
WHAT I BROUGHT AND THOUGHT WAS A GOOD CHOICE
Some clothes. I got rid of 80% of my shoes and clothes before coming here and it was the best decision. I’ve slowly built up my closet here from secondhand shops and I would do it exactly the same if we moved again.
Light things you would turn around and buy again here. It saves you a ton of money to bring things over things like a glass mixing bowl, some kitchen utensils, sheets, towels (also good for protecting and filling up space in your suitcase).
Sentimental things. Honestly didn’t bring much at all. We left a few boxes with my mom before coming.
My cast iron pan. Brought it on my back - lasts a lifetime, and to me is worth it. Plus it was the only thing we cooked in for a while before we got fully settled.
Plug adaptors. Again, please note that these do not convert voltage! But it’s to this day how we use our phone and laptop chargers. Got them super cheap on Amazon before we came over.
8. Jumping at First Opportunities Out of Desperation
A big example for us was housing. We wanted to get a place so badly that we almost accepted a few truly terrible places.
The first one I actually had nicknamed the Death Trap house because it had several dangerous drop-offs and decks that our baby definitely could’ve gotten really hurt on. Another was horribly stinky, another had obvious mold and water damage, another the ceiling was falling in.
The worst was the one we almost got scammed on. It seemed too good to be true (red flag number one). And as we drove away Billy said he didn’t have a good feeling about it, but I loved the location and the house so much I just wanted it to work. But later that night he started doing a bunch of googling and found articles talking about how they’d been sued and lost the cases, and so many reviews about their management company were horrible - saying they ran off with your money, never responded, had terrible problems like rat infestations, etc. Luckily we caught all of this BEFORE we signed any contracts.
We’re very happy with the place we ended up with, but again, that’s due to taking the time necessary to find the right place.
Along those lines - when we finally did get in to our new, empty place, we kind of just rushed out and bought a bunch of home good stuff that we needed and I regretted not taking the time to check out a few stores to see the options and price differences. Especially being in a new country - you don’t have a very good idea of what are good prices for things.
Take what you will from this whole article, because the way we did things is probably the way we would mostly do it again. We did everything the cheapest way possible which often led to us flying by the seat of our pants, trying to make it work and hoping and knowing that it would all be fine in the end. The biggest takeaway for me was just giving it all more time.
TIPS
TIP 1
Save up as much money as possible, because moving countries is always expensive: flights over here, first and last month rent, buying a car, setting up so many utilities, buying things to fill an empty house (bed, furniture, fridge, washer, dishes, etc.) and all your food to stock your empty fridge and pantry. Getting coffees with all the new people you’re meeting. Going on adventures and traveling to see all the cool new places and trying all the fun new food places around you. It feels like a black hole for your money in the beginning, so it’s really nice to have a little bit saved up before the move if possible.
TIP 2
Having some friends or contact people to help out. Because when you move to a new country you have no idea what you’re doing half the time, and they do. Every time you have a question, it’s such a relief to have someone to turn to.
TIP 3
Getting a car as soon as you can. You do so much running in the beginning - checking out all these new potential homes, setting everything up, picking up your fridge, your bed, your groceries, and all of this is worlds better if you have a car you have access to. You’re driving constantly in the beginning.
TIP 4
Having a baby made a lot of things much easier for us. For example, even the flight over so many people were so kind and generous with us because they saw we had a baby. When we got here I made a bunch of friends through mom groups. Not saying you should have a baby to get to the front of the line at the airport, but it does have a few perks.
So these were all the mistakes and tips I think we made moving to New Zealand. I hope this is helpful to anyone moving over here soon!
If you are moving to New Zealand soon, know that it’s going to be super expensive, very hectic, but also completely wonderful. We are so thrilled to be here and feel so incredibly lucky to wake up every day here.
Good luck with your move!
xBecca
