Yippee! My Stereo Has Arrived!

Finally, after many months at sea our belongings arrived in Christchurch. Pete had done his own research and tracked the container (number PONU7615677) across the oceans, etc. Our boxes were collected (by SevenSeas) from Redbridge, Southampton on 26th January to a depot in Swindon, driven to Folkestone (by the shipping company Maersk), transfered back to Southampton and finally departed the UK on 10th of March. That is what centralisation of companies can do for you!!! However, it did not stop there. Once our container arrived in Singapore it was loaded onto another boat, went to Tauranga, NZ and from there was loaded onto a truck, driven to Wellington, where it boarded a ferry and finally arrived in Christchurch on 26th of April. All 450kgs of it.

It was so exciting to receive our belongings back. That night and many following we had the task of unpacking everything, to check it was not damaged. As our living arrangements are a little cramped at the moment, we then had to repack our belongings back in thier boxes and stack them in the corner of our room. Only 1 box was opened by Customs, and we were happy to find that our African table was not impounded. Patrick was set free, at last and is happy to be near his native country.

Luckily, only 1 item was damaged. Pete was absolutely distraught to find that his Harry Potter mug was in many pieces, beyond glue repair. On the other hand, he was elated to find that his stereo is working. Just as well, considering we carried the remote control in our hand luggage after finding it under a cushion of the settee, moments after the boxes had been collected.

Pete was also so happy to see our photos back. So much so, that he 'decided' to break the glass of a very nice picture frame. Just typical, it survives all sorts of modes of transport, being handled quite roughly, only to be broken by its owner!

Our 'life' still in boxes in the corner of the room

We are now just waiting to move into a place of our own so that we can unpack everything properly and find 'homes' for our possesions.