Finally moving house at level 3
Moving companies are facing a wave of bookings as New Zealand’s economy begins to reopen under alert level three.
And for one Christchurch family, it’s a relief to be moving into their new home after spending lockdown among boxed-up personal items in a house they had already sold.
New Zealand went into lockdown in late March to stop the spread of coronavirus, and moving companies were included in the non-essential businesses that had to close.
This left some people, like solo mum Kelsey Cumberland, having to move all their belongings by themselves. Cumberland only had the help of her 9-yearold son.
But for Deb Salisbury, husband Paul, and 20-year-old daughter Kate, things were not so difficult.
After four weeks of waiting, the family had the help of two moving trucks on the second day level three restrictions came into force.
‘‘It feels very satisfying to finally be on the move after waiting so long,’’ Deb Salisbury said.
She did not think it would take long to unpack things, adding she was halfway there by mid-afternoon yesterday.
She said it was a bit frustrating having to wait four weeks as they had rented a house a week before the lockdown began, shortly after selling their home.
‘‘We were paying for that and couldn’t move into it.’’
Salisbury said it was ‘‘pretty exciting’’ to wake-up on moving day, though she had to track down one of their two cats after she was accidently let outside early in the morning. ‘‘One was a wee bit of a struggle to catch ... but we managed to grab her [and] they seem to be settling in fine now.’’
Salisbury said the move went smoothly and the workers were clearly briefed on social distancing.
Dean Sullivan, Canterbury branch manager for The Moving Company, said a wave of moving jobs had come in since New Zealand moved to alert level three on Tuesday.
His company had condensed all the moves booked for late March and April into a two to three-week period.
‘‘It certainly is busy for these first two to three weeks until we catch back up again.’’
The company was limiting the number of employees to two per truck during the level 3 restrictions, and all staff had been provided with PPE, hand sanitiser and soap.
Normally, three movers in one truck would handle most moving jobs, whereas now a lot of jobs required two trucks with two movers each, Sullivan said.
‘‘That’s an additional cost to our business because we are having to run two vehicles to most jobs.’’
Sullivan said it was great to be back working.
‘‘Clients are just more than happy to get their move completed and get back on with their lives.’’