We Booked a Flight

We booked a flight for the end of August! It’s from SFO->LAX->Auckland! Holy cow, people. Things just got real. We also got a spot in the managed isolation for the day we land. Actually, it’s a packaged deal. You cannot board a flight without the MIQ reservation and you cannot book MIQ without a confirmed flight. You have 48 hours to do both. Thank you Covid. Because an international move isn’t stressful enough. (insert sarcasm font)

We are so hoping that the two-week quarantine period is no longer necessary by the time we go, but as of now, even with vaccinations, it’s not optional. So, it’s booked. It’s fine, great even. This type of measure is what has kept New Zealand so healthy and relatively Covid free. But now for us, the pressure is on. We need to make a decision on the shipping company we are going to use. We received four quotes from different companies to give us an idea of what the rates were and what is typically included for a 4 bedroom household. Let me tell you, it’s a lot. Plus, my husband has a classic car that he loves and we’re going to bring that too. For the household goods, the quotes are between $14 & 16k, door to door. Insurance has been quoted so far between 2% and 3% of the declared value of the goods. You can only insure your goods if they are packed by the moving company. We were going to pack it ourselves, even though the cost isn’t a lot for them to do it, just because I have the time. But because we’re going to insure it, we’ll have them pack it.

We went back and forth on insurance. For me it kind of comes down to peace of mind. I don’t care if a few IKEA glasses break. But what if it’s more than that? What if it’s one of the 1,000+ containers that are lost at sea each year? Of the six million currently in use around the world I realize that is highly unlikely but it would cost more than the price of insurance to replace all of our home goods we’ve collected over 20 years, not to mention the sentimental value of a few items. Of course, anything truly valuable, jewelry, personal electronics, certain papers, are coming with us as carry-on luggage.

In the next few days we’ll make a decision and honestly, it’s down to two. One doesn’t have experience shipping to New Zealand so they are out, and one company wasn’t as responsive as the other two. I think responsiveness at this stage is a good indication of how responsive they will be when our container is in transit, actually arrives in-port, and then at our home. It’s going to be stressful enough. I want to be able to have confidence in the people we are partnering with for this epic adventure.

So, that’s where we are at. We have a poster on our kitchen wall listing things we want to do one last time before we go. We’ll be back, my family is here, but we wanted to write down a few things for over the summer. The kids basically want play dates and sleepovers if/ when we can do it safely. I want to spend time with my family and maybe hit the beach one more time. I have to think of this as a ‘see you soon’, instead of a ‘goodbye’.