Now about a week after their arrival, the pair have had to boil water in a casserole dish, use two sets of duvets in their casings as a makeshift couch, and their Christmas hosting plans have had to be abruptly cancelled.
Bill Fortes said it felt like they were "camping".
"A 70-year-old doesn’t really want to spend Christmas in a house with no bloody furniture."
Mr Fortes and his wife Lisa Fortes spent the past four years living in Auckland.
However, with Mrs Fortes’ upcoming retirement, they decided to head back home to Dunedin.
They started planning their move back in April 2024 and got in touch with the moving company.
The plan was to get a shipping container and get it sent down to Dunedin using rail.
Pickup was on December 11, and the expected delivery was December 19.
However, the shipment was then delayed again until December 23, and finally the moving company said they would have to wait until December 29.
The lack of furniture meant the time-honoured tradition of Christmas spent at the Fortes’ house was not going to be possible.
Mrs Fortes said luckily their daughter’s boyfriend’s parents had offered to have them over for the festivities.
"We planned all this in April ... thinking we’d get delivery before Christmas. We thought booking in advance would mean we got ahead of the busy Christmas period."
Christmas presents to share with their family on the day had also been stored away in the container.
Mrs Fortes said they might just have to be "New Year’s presents" this year — that was if the furniture arrived.
She said they were just very lucky to have family in the city to help them.
"We’re lucky to have family or else we’d be in a bloody mess ... we’d have been completely stuck. "
