Hey MB, thanks for that and yeah I did know about the duty on imported goods, that's why we have the dilemma. I don't think we would have as many as 15 boxes as you say you did, and I think ?500 is a fair enough price for that but it seems that shipping to NZ could be more expensive.
I think what Deb was suggesting was just shipping her a couple of boxes over with oridnary stuff in them. There'won't be anything that could compromise NZ MAF, for eg as you say it will be winter when we land and we were considering sending over our sweaters, winter coats, woolies, boots (steam cleaned of course) that kind of thing. Deb said that her mum sent some big boxes over at Christmas and they went through customs without a hitch, she didn't see a problem with us doing the same. Does the receiver have to fill out paperwork for receiving a parcel then? What does this entail? Surely hundreds of people are sent overseas packages all the time, that would be an awful lot of paperwork wouldn't it? I'm not talking about massive boxes full of stuff like gardening tools, crockery, glassware, lawn mowers, anything even remotely like that. Just extra clothes, maybe 1 regular (18x 18 x 18 inch) box of toys, 1 box of ornaments and photos, 1 box of dvds and cds, some golf clubs and a coupe of musical instruments.
What for instance if Deb had bid for some golf clubs on ebay in the UK from NZ and won. The clubs have to be shipped to her NZ address, would this be queried and would she have to file paperwork to receive them?
Any further help please.