The container has arrived!

The ship that is carrying our furniture has finally arrived at the port of Christchurch after a journey of two months. I will surely be glad to be able to lay my hands on our own desktop computer again. Our 300 MHz laptop can be switched on, but that’s all there is to say about the thing. It takes a whopping 8 minutes to start it up – I kid you not. Oh well, a slow laptop is better than no computer at all, and we have gratefully used it for the past two months, to maintain this blog, for example :-)

The price we paid to the mover company was all-in, except for port charges (harbour costs). Just to lift the container off the ship the harbour wants to receive a staggering NZ$455!!! What a rip-off! Oh well, just one more migration bill to pay of many, I guess. Not that we have any choice, if we ever want to see our stuff again :-)

The contents of the container still have to be checked by the MAF. The MAF is the department of NZ customs that has to prevent all kinds of seeds, animals and creepy diseases to enter the country. NZ is an island and therefore the native animals and plants here are very specialised. In the past imported plants and animals have wreaked havoc inside NZ because they were doing so well that they were (and still are) suppressing the native wildlife. NZ also doesn’t have any deadly species like snakes and tarantulas and they’d like to keep it that way :-) Emma and me have obeyed all import rules stated on the web site of the MAF so I don’t expect any problems to arise.

Since we don’t have a house with storage room here in NZ yet, the container will go to my father in Ashburton. Before that happens it will take a few more days though, as the container first has to be sent to the moving company in Christchurch, which in turn will make an appointment with the MAF to check out the stuff. Only after all the paperwork and the checking is finished will the container be at our disposal. We’ll have to wait and see…