Visit to New Zealand.

My Wife and I have been offered free use of a house and car in Hastings (Hawkes Bay on the east coast about half way up the North Island) in August/ September. We will be based there but will be free to stay away when we travel. I hope to organise a car in the South Island and spend some time there.

I am asking for suggestions of collections and scenic places to see but we have been there several times before, so do not want any comments about the accent or sheep. My Wife claims that the only straight level road in the country is south from Christchurch across the Canterbury Plain.

I had the British Car Museum at Haumoana (only about 30 kilometres from Hastings) on my Bucket List but the operator has passed away and his heirs are selling off vehicles but will not allow inspections of vehicles other than the ones offered at the time.

I have been to MOTAT Museum in Auckland and the Southward collection at Paraparaumu just north of Wellington and plan to see them again. I missed the Cox? Brothers collection and the Richardson Collection of trucks , both in Invercargill (I was there soon after Bill passed away and the museum was closed) I have seen the Burt Munroe display (World's Fastest Indian) at Invercargill and the Transport Museum at Wanaka. Mount Cook and Lake Tekapo are worth seeing but when I was there, they were both covered in fog.

Does anyone know of an affordable way to bring a vehicle from NZ to Australia? you never know what I might find.

You need to allocate at least a whole day for the Richardson Museum and budget for buying Bill's two books if they are still in print. It has grown since you were there. Wanaka is the other huge one and again take a packed lunch. They also have a dolls museum for the other half.. While you are down south put Milford sound on your list, and best to take a tourist bus package on account of the scenery being so amazing that risk of a crash is high due to driver rubber necking at the scenery on the way there.
Apparently car carrier ships do a one way circuit Aus> NZ>Japan> Asia>Aus and is relatively easy, just have to pay, however the big difficulty is with customs/quarantine who have nearly killed the import of old vehicles due to their idiot approach to asbestos - same type of Canberra public servants that pushed robo-debt. Not sure of the latest situation on that subject so consult a specialist importer.

Morris

Seriously investigate car hire in NZ. We found we could get a motor home for half the price of a car and about 1/4 the price when you take away hotel costs. Plenty of very pretty free-camping places.

You know the place well and that traffic is very light so no bother with a larger vehicle. They all have depots at the airport. We did 10 days on South Island last year during the 3 week open covid window for under $2,000 for the two of us including Brisbane - Christchurch air fares, camper rental and fuel.

Lang

Lang wrote:

Morris

Seriously investigate car hire in NZ. We found we could get a motor home for half the price of a car and about 1/4 the price when you take away hotel costs. Plenty of very pretty free-camping places.

You know the place well and that traffic is very light so no bother with a larger vehicle. They all have depots at the airport. We did 10 days on South Island last year during the 3 week open covid window for under $2,000 for the two of us including Brisbane - Christchurch air fares, camper rental and fuel.

Lang

I gotta agree with Lang, motor home rental is cheaper than a car, the south island has plenty of camping spots
I got back last week after another quick trip to the south island

Paul

Thank you everyone for your information. Wife and I did a coach tour to Milford Sound when we were there about twelve years ago. We were offered a helicopter return to Wanaka but it was cancelled because there were not enough takers. (Nothing to do with this, but a fellow I know who goes there to take part in a bicycle endurance ride, claims it should be pronounced "One-Knacker")
We hired a large Motorhome about 30 years ago with the two kids and my in-laws. After we returned home I asked the 11 year old and the six year old what they enjoyed most about the trip. After discussing it, they said "Feeding the ducks" (We had given them bread each morning to feed ducks at rivers and lakes at free camping spots)
I will look at hiring a smaller campervan this time, after your suggestions but If I find a vehicle I like, and can afford, I might buy one and travel in that.

Does anyone have names or contact details of Car carrier companies or shipping agents? Apparently I have to get permission from Canberra before I import anything.

Morris

Look at this.

www.infrastructure.gov.au/infrastructure...ad-vehicle-australia

If it is an old vehicle you send your $50 off and get the certificate. It only takes a couple of days. Don't ship until you have the certificate. Lots of ways to bring newer vehicles in. Not complicated.

Use one of the car import people who advertise in Just Cars etc for a complete drive in - drive away service. Not cheap but almost impossible to do by yourself.

Australia has far and away the most expensive ports and import charges (you will get a list of about ten different bills) in the world. The landing charges will be more than the cost of shipping the container.

Customs people are well trained professionals who are only interested in having paperwork boxes ticked. Quarantine people are a blight on the escutcheon of progress. I think they pull them out of the dole line, give them a two week course and a uniform. Because they know nothing they have no judgement and exercise their power beyond all reasonable bounds not because they see something but because something "might" be there. It can cost you heaps with extra cleaning and delay.

I have gone close to doing time for assault on several occasions.

After importing about 15 vehicles over the last 30 years I have given up. The cost has become ridiculous and almost certainly cheaper and less stressful to pay the extra $10,000 for the same vehicle here. Not saying a NZ vehicle would cost $10,000 but I bet by the time you have finished you could not buy a cup of coffee from the remains of $5,000. Remember the 10% GST on top of all your shipping and agent fees.

Lang

Lang
I agree it is not worth it financially but they have so many English bodied vehicles and models we did not get here, it would be fun to have something nobody has seen before. Rather like my 1927 D Type Six Wheeler (tandem drive) Morris Commercial and my 1977 Leyland Princess "wedge."

Morris
We hired a camper van when we were over there in 2000 flew into Auckland went south and flew home from Christchurch found out after if we had flown into Christchurch and gone north we would have got a better deal because everyone goes north to south and then they have to pay drivers to get the camper vans back to Auckland don’t know if it’s still the same

Cheers Bluey

It is the same up here to rent a camper to go to Alaska.. It is cheaper in one direction..

So back to your original question What to see, as you will all know last year I toodelled off over there for a couple of weeks and it coincided with the Mack 50 years of Mack NewZealand manufactureringSo to me the highlight of the trip was a place I can't find a web site forIt was at Geraldine in the South Island It's a private museum in a huge shed, I did share plenty of photos It had earth moving gear, trucks tractors cars and motor bikesIt wasn't cramped at all and the blokes there on the day that they just happened to be open for a car club were really good and not pushy at allThe museum had heaps of room and to me was better than the Invercargill truck museumMore room to wander around, look stare drool imagine etcNot as much stuff but still filled in a few hoursThere is another museum in Geraldine thats in 5 sheds thats on the interweb it had heaps more stuff and it was so packec in I didn't really enjoy it

I could probably track down a name and number if you want

I can also send you a map with the place circled

Lets be honest, NewZealand is really a pretty special place no matter were you go

Paul