Small moves around Tauranga and the Mount

Small moves posted here fall into a few familiar shapes. If your Mount tenancy ends before summer, a studio's worth of gear leaves a place off Maunganui Road or Marine Parade and heads inland. Families who have sold the Otūmoetai or Matua bungalow post the last load, the beds and the boxes the car could not take, on the way to a smaller place at Bethlehem, Papamoa or Omokoroa. Flatmates move a room at a time around Greerton, Gate Pā and Judea. A single item on its own can be the whole job.

The city is spread thin and cut up by water, so the driving counts as much as the lifting. A load from Papamoa East to Matua crosses nearly the whole of Tauranga, and the slow parts are predictable: the harbour bridge and Hewletts Road, the Turret Road and 15th Avenue causeway into Welcome Bay, Cameron Road through Greerton at school pickup. The Mount has metered parking, narrow side streets and apartment blocks where you may need to book the lift. Otūmoetai and Matua hide houses down long shared driveways, and in Welcome Bay, Ōhauiti and Pyes Pā the front door often sits well above or below the kerb.

Because every driver prices their own bid, the numbers on one Tauranga move rarely line up. One driver may already be crossing between the Mount and town that morning, so your load fills the rest of the van. Another may be heading back over the Kaimais and would rather not travel empty. A van with one person on board costs less to run than a truck with a crew, so a driver who can handle your job alone prices it on that basis. List the stairs, the lift, the driveway and whether the bed comes apart, and each driver can price on what is actually there.