Shipping...

For those of you who have eliminated frequent moving from your lifestyle, I have to say that you probably are wise - and you probably have a lot more stuff in your house and your bank account than us. We've been more or less 'moving' since last May in the sense that we've been packing, moving, or living out of boxes during that time. We are very close to be done with all that – at least for the rest of this year - and that makes me very happy.  I love many parts of moving, and unpacking/setting up is one of them.

A huge reason for my relief is that our stuff has arrived. I dropped off all our boxes at a warehouse in Portland, with some greatly appreciated help from Erin and David, and then have been waiting ever since to learn if I had been ever so clever or just another idiot for choosing to ship the way we did.

I don't really know what the journey was like for my stuff, but it was most likely on a boat like this.

It arrived in Auckland less than 3 weeks after leaving Los Angeles, which makes the Pacific seem a bit smaller to me. Then it took a train down to Wellington.

After some faxing, lots of phone calls, port fees, a stop at customs and a visit to MAF (ministry that deals with keeping bugs out of the country amoung other things), we were set to pick up our goods. I got to drive my first disel super van that was way too long for it ability to turn corners. The rental place pointed out the dents on each side where people had hit poles turning corners and then gave me the keys. They very much assume that everyone here can drive a stick shift – thank goodness I can now!

The men at the next warehouse were really lovely. They even loaded our stuff into the van for us. That saved a ton of work.




We then drove up to Porirua to pick up my first trademe purchase – our new table and 6 matching chairs. It was the strangest transaction... the woman emailed me her bank details. I deposited the money straight into that. She left the table in her shed and told me where the key was. I drove up, let myself in, and added the table to all my boxes. The top is banged up, but I really like how it fits in with our new flat.... and I certainly have never had matching chairs.  They even sort of match the color of our kitchen zone.



Hopefully by the end of the week we'll have more than just a table! For now I'm thrilled to have access to things that I packed last spring in Boston. Nothing was broken, and while I wish I had brought a tad more (like more than 1 towel to go with the 3 sets of sheets I brought - what was I thinking!, we have enough to make do.