The 24-year-old lock had been instrumental in helping his former side to five victories in the ITM Cup, but arrives at the Firhill Stadium raring to go.
He said: "I'm very excited to be here. It took a couple of days but it's good to be here and now so hopefully I can catch up on a bit of sleep and be ready for training.
"I've got some match fitness behind me and I'm just looking forward to meeting the boys now in a whole new environment a new team and a new structure so I'm really excited.
"I've heard it's a different style, I haven't really watched a lot of football in the northern hemisphere, but I'm excited to get stuck in and see what it's all about.
"It's definitely a quality competition, both the Rabo and the Heineken Cup are quality competitions, so I think it will be a good challenge for me."
Verbakel revealed the presence of fellow Kiwi Sean Lineen has helped him settle in but says he will only be satisfied once he has nailed down his starting XV.
He added: "It's quite exiting to have a Kiwi on the coaching staff and I'm sure we'll have some chats about New Zealand and what's happening in the World Cup and stuff like that.
"But the goal for me at the moment is to just settle in to the team as quickly as possible and just get involved as soon as I can."
63x46.png){kind=logo}