Sending overseas deadlines start today

AUCKLAND: The first Christmas overseas delivery deadline looms for anywhere other than Australia, the South Pacific, Asia, North America, the United Kingdom and Europe.

The deadline to send these presents away via New Zealand Post’s international airservice is today.

And the sending deadlines for Australia, the South Pacific, Asia, North America, UK, and Europe are also fast approaching.

Those hoping to send presents to Australia are due to be sent by November 30, with the remaining countries even earlier on November 27.

The international Christmas sending dates this year were brought forward by a week to give presents the best chance to arrive on time.

NZ Post chief operating officer Brendon Main said last month the Covid19 pandemic forced it to bring the deadline forwards.

‘‘We’d encourage Kiwis to send items as early as they can, both within New Zealand and internationally, to ensure they are there in plenty of time for Christmas,’’ he said.

‘‘We also encourage people looking to order items from overseas online stores to do this as early as they can.’’

Kiwis have until December 21 to send post and parcels which should arrive before Christmas, with couriers having a December 23 deadline.

More than 1500 extra transport runs will be made to ensure mail is delivered on time, as well as three additional sites to manage surges in mail volumes.

The service will also bring on 350 additional processing staff, 200 more courier vans and 185 extra flights.

Christmas is usually the busiest time of the year for NZ Post. However, the parcel delivery records have already been broken this year due to Covid19 with online shopping about 30% up in October on the corresponding time last year.

After the lifting of Alert Level 4, NZ Post received about 3.5 million parcels in a fortnight, or about 200 parcels a minute.

Cutoff dates, as well as the deadlines for sending within New Zealand, are available on the NZ Post website.