If you have pets then you will need to decide whether to bring them with or not. There is a process to taking pets to New Zealand and we will show you how here.
Factors that you would need to consider are:

1) Will you be able to live with the knowledge that your beloved pet has been left behind?

2) Can you afford to bring the pets with? It can be very costly to bring your pets over. Then the pets also need to be micro-chipped for identification purposes, plus there is also a mandatory quarantine period when they arrive (10 days) which needs to be paid for.

3) Will the pet(s) handle the trip and the 10 day quarantine period?

4) Will your pets fit in, in New Zealand. Houses don’t generally have walls all around the property, so if you have a dog that likes to go walkies every time you open the gate, then you are going to pick up problems here. The same goes for if your dog likes to bark at the slightest movement or noise. You hardly ever hear a dog bark in New Zealand and you never see stray dogs roaming the streets. Kiwis LOVE their pets, especially dogs, but they just that – pets. In South Africa our dogs are actually guard dogs that double as pets. We want them to bark at the slightest noise, etc. Here the neighbours will call the authorities if you have dogs that constantly yap or run around the streets.

5) If you will be renting when you arrive then your choice of rental will be severely limited. Most landlords do not allow pets. The reason for this is because Kiwis like to let their pets enter the house and usually also sleep indoors at night. Pet hairs are notoriously difficult to remove from carpets, etc., and pets indoors can make the house smell, so most landlords err on the safe side by not allowing pets on their properties.

If you don’t then you will need to either find good homes for them, or if the pet is in it’s twilight years and ill, then many owners decide to have the pet euthanized. Either way it will be a very difficult and traumatic decision, especially for the kids.

If you do decide to bring the pets with then you will need to organise :