My almost-three year old daughter is about to outgrow her current car seat and instead of getting her a new one here I'd like to buy one over the internet from Canada or the States and have it waiting for us when we arrive there for a long visit in a month or so - then bring it back with us when we come home.  My problem is that not only are most of the brands and seats different in the various countries, but I'm not sure what's approved for use here.  Does anyone have any advice?

I've been looking at seats here and have narrowed it down to either the Maxi-Rider II or the Recaro Young Sport, except of course the Young Sport is incredibly expensive.  I was quite excited to find (apparently) the same seat for sale for US$170 or something like that, plus shipping to Canada, but is it actually the same?  The description sounds identical but I'd hate to spend around NZ$420 all up and then find out that it's not approved here.

Hey Ansis
Just a word of warning if you do decide to import a seat. As Bonnie has said, the seat won't be legal for use in NZ.  Personally I decided to import anyway, because my 2yo is right on the border of being too big for a maxi-rider II, (so can't use extended harnessing either, as he's too tall for the shoulder slots as well as 18kg),and it's important to me that he stays in a 5-pt harness. 

But here's the thing.  The seat, a Britax Frontier, (which has a maximum weight of 36 kg harnessed), cost about $270 US.  Cheapest postage available was $260 US (don't be fooled by postage quotes for the weight alone, its the SIZE of the box that adds cost).  AND if Customs sees the seat on the way in to NZ, there can be a duty charge of 23%.  So, not only do you have a seat that's not legal, but you may end up paying a good NZ$800+ for it!  So you'd probably only want to do this as an absolute last resort.

If you are able to take it as baggage on the plane, obviously you may be able to avoid some of these costs, but you might want to check with the airline first, as you may need to pay additional baggage costs.

Cheers!

How old is your child? And what seat was your son using? FYI it's not illegal for you to import a hi liner from australia 

Oh didn't see the other question - the seat he was using was the Waitakere trusts one from 3 years ago - Sorry I can't remember the brand but it was one of the type that does not need to be tethered rear facing. The Trusts ones I just picked up for my twins are Evenflo Tribute 5 (I think) but they aren't the same as the one I have for my son.