New Zealand is the furthest your belongings can travel and the hardest border in the world to bring them through. We collect anywhere in the UK, ship by sea, get your shipment through MPI biosecurity and Customs, and deliver into your home in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch or anywhere between.
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New Zealand's economy rests on agriculture and its native species exist nowhere else, so the Ministry for Primary Industries treats every incoming container as a risk until proven otherwise. Every household shipment is inspected. Not sampled — inspected.
That single fact shapes the whole move. It is why we walk your house before packing rather than after, why we tell you to spend a Saturday cleaning the mower and the tent, and why our inventories are written to be read by an inspector. Get the preparation right and clearance is routine. Get it wrong and your container sits on the wharf accruing storage while somebody fumigates your garden furniture.
Auckland Harbour · Milford Sound · Mauao
Volume decides it first, urgency second. We recommend one after your survey and show you the alternative price rather than quietly selecting the larger box.
Under roughly 300 cu ft · also called groupage or LCL
You buy only the space your belongings occupy in a container shared with others bound for the same New Zealand port. Comfortably the cheapest route for part loads, a one-bedroom flat or furniture without the rest of the house. The cost is time: the container waits to fill, and clears as a group.
Roughly 1,000 cu ft · one to two bedrooms
Yours alone, sailing as soon as it is loaded. Roughly two weeks quicker than shared space on the same route, and worth the difference if your dates are fixed or you would rather your goods were not consolidated with anyone else's.
Roughly 2,200 cu ft · three to five bedrooms
The usual choice for a family home, with capacity for white goods, garden equipment and a car alongside the furniture. Clears as one consignment, which matters more in New Zealand than most places because MPI inspects the whole container as a unit.
Priced by weight · 7–10 days
For what you cannot wait three months for: work equipment, a cot, school uniforms, clothes for the season you land in. Costly per kilo, so it works best as a small shipment flying ahead of the container rather than instead of it.
Most movers make you fill in a form before they will discuss money. Here is the shape of it up front — and, unlike most published prices in this trade, an honest account of what these figures do and do not cover.
| Size of move | Shipping, port to port | Packing and UK collection |
|---|---|---|
| Small move, shared containerA flat, a student move, part of a house | £791–£1,990 | Quoted per move |
| 20ft containerTypically a three-bedroom house | £4,190–£4,800 | About £2,010 |
| 40ft containerFour bedrooms and upwards | £6,020–£6,900 | About £2,510 |
The middle column is the shipping, and only the shipping. It is the cost of moving the container from a UK port to the destination port. The third column adds packing to export standard and collection from your home. Still to come on top of both: customs clearance at each end, quarantine or biosecurity inspection where the destination requires it, insurance, destination charges and delivery into your new home. Those are quoted per shipment, and every one of them is explained with published figures on what your quote doesn’t include.
We split it out this way because a shipping figure presented as the price of a move is how an advertised number ends up a couple of thousand pounds below what anybody actually pays. Ranges are indicative, move with sailing rates and the season, and depend on your actual packed volume — which is why we survey before we quote. The same figures for every destination, with a worked example, are on what an international move costs.
Door to door, from collection in the UK to delivery in your New Zealand home. Planning figures rather than guarantees — sailing schedules, wharf congestion and biosecurity inspection all move them.
| Destination | Shared container | Sole-use container |
|---|---|---|
| Auckland and upper North IslandAuckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Whangarei | 10–14 weeks | 8–12 weeks |
| Lower North IslandWellington, Palmerston North, Napier, New Plymouth | 11–15 weeks | 9–13 weeks |
| South IslandChristchurch, Dunedin, Nelson, Queenstown | 11–15 weeks | 9–13 weeks |
| Air freightAll major cities | 7–10 days | |
The sea crossing is around six to eight weeks. Everything else is consolidation, clearance and inland delivery. Most shipments arrive at Auckland or Lyttelton and travel on by road, which adds one to three weeks for addresses away from the port — longer for Queenstown, Nelson and rural districts. Ask us for a figure against your actual delivery address rather than your nearest city.
We prepare most of it. These are the pieces that need something only you can provide, so it is better to know about them before the container sails than while it sits on the wharf.
Quoted as one price and delivered as one service. Anything not on this list will be named in your quotation, not discovered later.
The Ministry for Primary Industries inspects every consignment of household goods arriving in New Zealand. Very little is banned outright, but anything carrying soil, seeds, insects, bark or organic residue can be held, cleaned, heat-treated, fumigated or destroyed — and inspection and treatment charges fall to you, not to us.
The remedy is unglamorous and completely effective: clean everything before we pack it. Half a day with a stiff brush and a hose is the cheapest insurance in international moving. If something cannot be cleaned to bare and dry, tell us and we will price the alternative rather than gamble on the inspection.
Biosecurity requirements change. We confirm the current position for your shipment at survey and give you a written list to work from before anything is boxed.
Regular sailings to the main ports on both islands, with road and inter-island delivery beyond them. Your goods clear at the port that serves your address, which is not always the nearest one.
Ports of Auckland
New Zealand's main gateway and our busiest route. The most frequent sailings, the most consolidated groupage space and, as a rule, the quickest and cheapest port to ship to from the UK.
CentrePort
Serves the lower North Island and the ferry crossing to Picton. Direct calls are less frequent than Auckland, so shipments are sometimes routed via Auckland or Tauranga with onward road delivery.
Lyttelton
The principal South Island port, handling Canterbury and onward delivery to Queenstown, the West Coast and Southland. Add road time for anywhere beyond the Canterbury plains.
Port of Tauranga
New Zealand's largest port by volume, serving the Waikato and Bay of Plenty. Often the practical arrival point for the central North Island even when Auckland looks closer on a map.
Port Chalmers
Serves Otago and the far south. Sailings are less regular, so most shipments arrive via Lyttelton and travel on by road. Allow additional weeks and tell us early.
Nelson, Napier, rural
Nelson, Napier, Northland and rural addresses are all served, generally via a main port with road or coastal feeder onward. Access matters here — tell us about narrow lanes and long driveways.
Working backwards from your flight.
Book your survey and confirm the quotation. If a vehicle is going, start entry certification and book the steam clean now.
Decide what travels, what sells and what goes to storage. Begin cleaning garden tools, boots, bikes and camping gear.
Complete your valued inventory for insurance and your biosecurity declaration. Separate air freight items and hand luggage.
We pack, inventory and load across one to three days. Anything that fails the biosecurity check is set aside, not quietly boxed.
We lodge the entry, present the shipment to MPI, deal with any inspection or treatment, and book delivery once your address is confirmed.
Volume first, then container type, then how far your delivery address sits from the arrival port — which matters more in New Zealand than most countries, because road distances from Auckland and Lyttelton are long. Any figure quoted before a survey is guesswork. Use the volume estimator on our home page for a sense of scale, then let us survey and quote in writing.
Below about 300 cubic feet, shared space is almost always cheaper. Above roughly a two-bedroom house, sole use usually wins on both time and handling, and it typically saves around two weeks on this route. In between it is a real trade-off, and we will show you both prices.
In practice, yes. Australia risk-assesses and inspects a proportion of shipments; MPI inspects every consignment of household effects. The rules themselves are broadly similar, but the certainty of being looked at means preparation matters more. Nothing about that is a problem if you clean properly before packing.
Usually not, but the test is about you rather than your possessions. Migrants qualify where they hold permanent residency, a work-to-residence visa or a work permit valid for at least twelve months when the goods arrive. Returning New Zealanders generally need to have been away for more than twenty-one months. In both cases the goods must have been owned and used overseas beforehand, and you need to be in the country when they land, or arrive within six months against a bond. New purchases, alcohol and tobacco fall outside the relief entirely.
Common, and manageable. You can nominate someone in New Zealand to act for you with a letter of authority, copies of your passport and visa, the inventory and your NZCS 218. Alternatively we clear against a bond and hold the shipment in storage until you land. Both routes cost something, so tell us your flight dates and we will pick the cheaper one.
Customs and MPI clearance usually takes one to two weeks after arrival. If MPI select items for inspection, the examination and any cleaning or treatment are charged to you rather than to us, and typically run between NZ$215 and NZ$585 depending on the size of the shipment and how clean it is. That is the strongest practical argument for scrubbing the garden tools before we pack them.
Yes, and UK cars have an advantage: New Zealand drives on the left, so right-hand drive is already correct. The work is in the preparation. The vehicle must be steam-cleaned inside, underneath and in the engine bay to satisfy MPI, and it needs entry certification against NZTA standards before it can be registered. Some models require modification. Allow at least three months.
Anything cheap and bulky, garden chemicals and paints (prohibited), food, and honey in any form. Plugs differ but voltage matches the UK, so lamps and kettles travel fine. Wooden garden furniture is often more trouble than it is worth once treatment costs are counted. We will walk the house and say plainly what to leave.
Eight to ten weeks is comfortable. Sailings to New Zealand are less frequent than to Australia and shared container space to the South Island in particular fills early, so late bookings tend to lose the cheaper option rather than the move itself.
Yes. If you have lived outside the UK for at least twelve consecutive months and are resuming residence here, you may qualify for Transfer of Residence relief, which must be applied for before your goods arrive. We handle the ToR application alongside the move and collect from any New Zealand address.
Tell us where you're heading and roughly when. A consultant will come back within one working day to arrange a survey.