Container Space available - Bali to Auckland - September/October 2005
Last year Julie and I did some serious shopping. We spent a week seeking out 'good stuff' to bring back to Auckland, focusing initially on stuff the garden; statues, water features, bird baths but then going on to seek out and find more good stuff for the house; glass platters, wooden bowls, beaded sandals, beaded bags and beaded boxes and more! We thought we had enough to fill a container but a container does hold an awful lot. So..... we put the word out that we had spare space and invited friends to also go shopping and share the cost of the container. They took up the challenge with relish and bought 14 cubic metres of stuff between them. We had just 2 cubic metres left when they finally closed the doors and send the thing on its way.
In the end, everyone was very happy so we are doing it again this year - are we mad or what?? Not really - we are planning things carefully and expect to have a similarly happy outcome this year. Would you like to join us? Of course you will want to know costs and at this stage the best I can do is a general estimate of $275 per cu.m. Part of a cu.metre is fine. One person last time brought back 3 largish lamps and it cost him $50. The lamps cost 30,000 rupiah each, so were still good value. I'll fix the price before you commit - there was too much uncertainty last time when we simply shared the final cost, so we will fix the price after meeting the cargo people in June and we will wear any shortfall if there is some space left over in the container. There are many costs associated with a container - freight, packing, docs, fumigation, transport to storage etc etc etc. The $275 is for everything except GST and Duty. GST is charged at 18% of cost (don't ask me why - yet) on most things, while duty is charged at 5% on a few things - wooden doors, framed mirrors but not stone statures for example. Chairs for example had duty added on -we make chairs here in NZ hence the duty. At the end of the day, even with the GST and Duty added, the final prices for things were still very good. The expected departure date for the container is during September 2005 arriving at Auckland October 2005. We will be buying and ordering in June and asking suppliers to have stuff ready by the end of August. This worked well last time. It takes about 4 weeks for the container to arrive in Auckland. We will have some short term storage immediately after the container arrives, but the idea is for each person to pick up their stuff almost immediately the container is unloaded. We may be able to make other arrangements if someone needs longer term storage but please say so at the outset so it can be arranged (or not!) from the beginning. At this stage, buying and selling half a container a year is too much fun to be a business, more like an expensive hobby, but who knows where this might lead. We like the excuse to get back to Bali - as if we needed one. Drop us a line at info@batu.co.nz and we will keep you informed of where we are at re space, costings and timings. If you really really need that big hand chair beside the pool, or you have seen a cane suite that would be perfect for the sunroom, this may be your lucky day.
Feel free to ask any questions - either here or directly.
Kind regards, Simon