Furniture delivery in Dunedin, from Mosgiel to the peninsula

The student year sets the rhythm. Around the start and the end of it, beds, desks, drawers and second-hand couches shift between the old villas of North Dunedin, Opoho and North East Valley, often with a fridge in the same load. The rest of the year looks different. Someone buys a dining suite from a South Dunedin showroom, wins a kauri sideboard at a Dunedin auction room, or leaves a big Roslyn villa for something newer in Mosgiel and only wants the good pieces carried over.

The city is built on hills, and the access tells the story. Houses in Mornington, Belleknowes and North East Valley often sit well above the road, behind a long flight of concrete steps, on a driveway too steep or too short for a loaded van. South Dunedin and the Taieri flat at Mosgiel are a different job entirely. Out on the peninsula, Portobello Road is narrow and winding right against the harbour, and Highcliff Road over the ridge is no shortcut with a trailer on. Most of it is stairs rather than lifts, so say which floor you are on.

Bids vary because the drivers do. One is running a van back down State Highway 1 and can take a bedroom suite on the way in. Another lives out at Mosgiel and would rather do three short Taieri runs than one long one. A third works with a mate, so a long flight of steps in North East Valley is work they can quote for rather than work they have to pass on. Each of them sets their own price, so what comes back is a spread. List the steps, the door widths and where a van can stop, because that is what each driver is pricing against.