Once I knew we were going to Colombia again, I did an audit of my clothes (threw a heap of them out and sent a heap of others to a charity bin).
I discovered that I’m running short on suitable clothes for travel – especially in a hot and humid environment like Cali in Colombia.
After I took several ExOfficio tops last time (and their laundry service lost my favourite top *sob*), I have expanded my collection of ExoDri tshirts a bit – they fit me beautifully and are very light. Most importantly, they are quick drying, so when I get all sweaty, they don’t stay wet like cotton tshirts do and they quickly dry off and leave me comfortable again.
The problem I’ve had is that Paddy Pallin are no longer stocking these tshirts and nobody else seems to import them into Australia.
The official ExOfficio store doesn’t ship internationally (despite my repeated pleas for them to do so), and REI in the US don’t stock these particular tshirts that I like.
So, in desperation I finally turned to a US purchasing service run by someone up on the Gold Coast. They partner with someone in the US, who will purchase the goods on your behalf using a US credit card and shipping to a US address. They then repackage the goods and send them to Australia, where they are then forwarded on to me.
It costs a fair bit (shipping can be expensive, plus they add 8% to the total as their fee), but with the strong AUD, the overall price is still not bad – especially given the USD prices are a bit cheaper than what I would have paid locally if I had been able to buy them.
All up it took 3.5 weeks for the goods to arrive on my doorstep from the time I paid my money, which was a bit longer than I had hoped – but the order is fine and I’m glad to have these tops and some extra boxers before we go away.
Actually, it’s not quite the final delivery – I tried to buy some replacement New Balance sneakers yesterday, but it seems that every single store in Sydney has sold out of US size 12 shoes in the style that I buy. I discovered that New Balance run a website in Australia and you can purchase directly from them (with fitting guarantees – free replacements etc) and shipping costs are only $5 (or free if you spend over $200). So I’ve ordered some new shoes – hopefully they will arrive by the end of this week.
I know this is too late for you now, but for future reference you might like to get a Borderlinx address. http://www.borderlinx.com/
I had similar problems before Christmas after finding some awesome and unique gifts but the shops were always unable and/or unwilling to post overseas.
Borderlinx gives you a UK and US address of your own, then they ship the items on to you. You can also bundle several deliveries together to save on shipping (which is a touch pricey – but better than not getting the items at all.) Having your own US or UK address often gives you free delivery to that address so you don’t double up too much on delivery fees.
Thanks for the tip Reg – I will look into that next time I need to buy something from OS!