Shipping my bike in, some questions.

[timpel_800]

Hello,

my name is tim and i'm from the Netherlands. I'm for a working holiday in new zealand, working as a baker in blenheim.

If you having problems with reading this post, blame my teacher, he was sick for a whole year during my exams :)

I have used the search and get a whole lot of information about shipping my bike in, but I have a further question.

Here soms facts.

Bike is from the Netherlands going to chirstchurch.
according to http://www.ltsa.govt.nz/factsheets/35.html#customs

there are 2 options to get it trough customs:

1 is with a carnet de passage
2 is by a temporary import entry

My bike is worth about 3000 nz dollar, shipping wil be around 1000nz dollar.
(its a Moto Guzzi NTX 650)

A carnet, is expensive, and only valid for one year.

After my working holiday is over, i'm planning to go to Australia, for an other working holiday (get the spirit) and of course, take my bike with me. That means, I have to get a new carnet ($$).

So I tought, it must be cheaper, to just get a temporary import entry at the customs, pay the cash disposit, and then, after a year, get it refunded.

My question is, does anybody know's, what the latest options will cost me?

Thanks for your help,

Tim

[tri boy]

Can't help you with the cost/best option for you, except Make sure it is clean, with regards to MAF policy.
Looks like a great adventure bike, you are in for a treat.:2thumbsup
Keep an eye on the adv forum. ;)

[vifferman]

I helped a guy from Scotland out with a similar visit a couple of years ago. It ended up being very expensive, and he had lots of problems with the bike not arriving when it was supposed to, the carnet getting mislaid, etc. He would have been better off buying a bike here, then selling it again when he left. There are motorcycle stores here that have a scheme like that: you buy the bike from them, with an agreed sell-back price when you've finished with it. The longer you have it, the less it costs you on a weekly basis. Of course, it costs you more than buying a bike yourself and selling it yourself, but you don't have the hassle of trying to sell it at the end of your visit in the limited time you have available. It's also cheaper than renting a bike.

[deanohit]

Sorry mate, don't know about shipping your bike here, but I think Vifferman has a good point where you buy a bike for your stay here and then onsell it. You'll enjoy Blenheim too (my old stompin ground), got plenty of cool roads near by and theres the Nelson adventure crew who arn't very far away.

[timpel_800]

ee guys,

The bike is allready on the big ocean, so thats no option :)

[tri boy]

I brought the Daytona back from Perth in 99. It was treated as a non comercial import, paid $800 import tax, and $40 MAF inspection fee. The tax was a percentage of it's value, so don't overvalue it.
Still have it, and have had no rego problems, so maybe just declare it as personal wheels and get it vinned.(but you might run into problems re local requirements, light lens etc, not sure)
Contact NZ Customs. They will have the best solution. Either way, it will cost.

[Mully]

ee guys,

The bike is allready on the big ocean, so thats no option :)

Will they issue a carnet when it's already on the water?? I thought they wouldn't.

Try for a Temporary Import Entry (TIE). They are only meant to be valid for one year only as well.

Can't think of a cheap way of doing it now.

ANYBODY CONTEMPLATING THIS IN THE FUTURE, TAKE VIFFERMAN'S ADVICE.

[clint640]

Definitely get the temporary import entry Tim.

A deposit of 12.5% of $3k doesn't exactly seem expensive to me, that & filling out a few forms plus a few bucks for vehicle licensing & you're good to go for 12 months (or even 18 months here if you apply for an extension). Basically the same deal in Australia, but make sure you get your temporary permit from Oz customs before you ship the bike there.

There is absolutely no reason to get an expensive Carnet for NZ or Oz.

Cheers
Clint

[timpel_800]

Tnx for your help!

I got another question, that you mayby can answer!

Does anyone have experience with trying to get a T I E? How long will this take to get? Any further costs?

I'd like to make some things clear in my mind.
1: ships comes in
2: bike gets of the boat
3: get it trough customs and MAF?
4: drive it home
5: whitin 5 day's, get a WOF
6: get it registerd
7: Free to g0000!!

Is this pretty much how it will go, of do i miss some things?

[Mully]

Tnx for your help!

I got another question, that you mayby can answer!

Does anyone have experience with trying to get a T I E? How long will this take to get? Any further costs?

I'd like to make some things clear in my mind.
1: ships comes in
2: bike gets of the boat
3: get it trough customs and MAF?
4: drive it home
5: whitin 5 day's, get a WOF
6: get it registerd
7: Free to g0000!!

Is this pretty much how it will go, of do i miss some things?

Approach a forwarder (the one doing the actual ocean freight will probably help, their name should be on the Bill of Lading) and ask them to arrange Customs Clearance.

They will probably charge $100ish and MAF will be around the same amount, plus the GST deposit for the TIE.

Oh, and if you get caught riding it before you've got a WOF, Mr Policeman will not be happy. And if you are running a foreign number plate, you will be noticed.

Cheers.

[timpel_800]

Well, since I have the bike up and running, I made a little trip yesterday and wrote a story about is, which will be down here...

Saturday, 26th of january 2008

Keeping in mind that I want to go out for a trip tomorrow in the early morning, I hit the sheets after tea. Ik have to catch up with some sleep that I somehow missed this week aswell.
1 o clock in the night I wake and there’s no way of falling back a sleep anymore. My whole rhythm is fucked up. After staring to the sealing for about two hours I get my ass out of bed and have some breakfast en prepare my lunch for the day.
I get myself in to my leathers and at four thirty in the morning I hit the road. Going down the street on low rev’s, not wanting to wake up the whole neighborhood with my open air filters and noisy exhaust.
I stop to close my ventilations zippers in my suit and turn on the highway, heading down to Christchurch. First I go up the hills and then the road ends up at the coast, which it will follow all the way down. I hardly see anybody. Only some big lorry’s, transfering load between the cities. I realise that my bike already did this road twice, altough not on his own wheels. One time on a truck down from Auckland, and the secondtime down from Christchurch to Blenheim. But both times in a wooden crate.
I close the other zippers aswell and put on my buff. I’m doing about a hunderd kilometers an hour, and instead of my bike back home, a Guzzi V50 with full fairing, I’m fully in the cold morning wind. I should have wore my all wheater suit, but I’m still in the believe that the sun is gonna come up out of the south pacific ocean at the left of me. But it still dark as hell.
A big ray of light reflects in my mirrors and then disappers again. The light follows me on about the same distance and then I realise that it must be the train.
I look for a spot at the side of the road, wait untill the train passes me by and wave to the train driver. The big black snake thunders slowly but steady along the rails into the night again.
But i’m faster then the train so I pass her again.
When it finally starts getting light I see that it’s not going to be the lovely sunny day that I had in mind. The sky is all grey above the ocean and there even drips of rain falling down at me.
I stop at the seal colony just before entering Kaikoura. The big black jelly looking animals are on the rocks beneaht me, strechting out, like they’ve had a hard night. They’re crying. They probably prefer sunshine aswell.
I didn’t bother taking my thermos with me, but I could use some hot drink.

Kaikoura is famous in New Zealand because of the whale watching. You can go on a ship and have a look at some of the biggest creatures of the sea, getting to the surface to get some air. The place is full of thrillseeking things you can do and other stupid touristic things I can’t be botherd with. Riding the road and have my own small world in this helmet is somehow enough for me.
They have good coffee though, so I stop at the petrol station to get some. The lady behind the counter is really nice to me and asks me how I feel this morning. I’m all sweet, but a little bit cold. She offers to put my gloves on the pie oven while the beans are being milled and the coffee pours down into my cup.
She asks me how I end up here this early morning and I tell her i’m from Blenheim and that I couldn’t sleep anymore, because being used to work at night, so I tought I might aswell make a wee trip.
And then you have to tell what kind of work you do and all that stuff. A converstation I can dream and comes easely out of my mouth, but I don’t mind telling it over and over and it is good to wake up in this with arifical lights lighted place which hurts my eyes a little bit.
A man came in and listens to our conversation. He askes me where I’m heading and makes me grap my map and then points out the route I should take.
I don’t argue and jump on the bike again, up to Hamner Springs. Once a place for the rehabilitation of drug addicts but when tourism rising, people noticed that the place was very popular because of his hot natural springs and thats how the story ends. Same as Kaikoura, the place is overwelmd with activities such as skieing, jet boating. You’re even able to take a chopper which takes you up in the skies to see the glaciers or whatsoever, or you can pay 5 bucks to get your ass in one of the hot pools.
I actually can use some warmth but the pools will only open at ten-ish and it’s still eight thirty in the moring. I’m not gonna wait for that, but I have to get some petrol. I reckon my bikes burns about one liter of petrol on 16 k’s, which gives me with the 32 liter tank all filled up about 500 k’s of space.

On a narrow windy road in a landscape scaped with mostly hills with yellowish grass on them I run in to a big herd of sheep, whose are being moved to another paddock. The shepperd, which in these days moves around on an ATV, says that I should just follow my way down easely trough the herd and the sheep will go out of the way, so there I go.
Quite cool this, I just ran into a thing that you useally see on postcards from New Zealand.
In the begining sheeps make way for me, but when I reach some kind of bottle neck, one sheep starts heading out for me. And you know about sheeps, if one jumps the ditch, the others will follow.
So suddenly heaps of sheeps running, bleating with their white bums and short tails, in the wrong direction. I hope the shepperd’s not gets mad with me.
A k of sheeps further down, there’s another shepperd with 2 dogs, whose are barking at the sheep, making sure none of woolish animals escape. So there’s a hard choice for them, oder run into the dogs, oder turn around and face the man on his red coloured screaming machine. They choose to get out of my way into the side of the road and into the scrub. I wave at the shepperd who waves back. Hooray! Gone I am.

I drive past paddocks with cows, or more deers I ever have seen in my whole life. The road is beatifull but the sunshine won’t shine out of those grey clouds yet. One of my nuts is crowling up my pants all the time, which is not a really nice feeling. I wonder if I maybe should buy bigger boxers, or that my suit needs to be wore more often so the leather will get smoother.
The road is going up aswell, geographicly spoken. I make a kind of a round trip.
When I reach the Nelson region, the sun showes his smile at me and sometimes I stop at a small waterfall or a fast running river, to eat some sandwiches with peanutbutter and a mouthfull of water.
Damn it’s hot overhere. It’s quite funny actually. Your cold, or warm on your bike. Never right. But thats part of the hard life we bikers ardore isn’t it?
The solution is just not to think about those things all the time. I learned that in the past few months. The more often you say things are bad, the worse the get, or a least they won’t get better by moaning about them. Just enjoy the view, throw the towel which you intented to take with you along with your togs for a refreshing swimg around your neck as a scarf and miles will fly under your twisting wheels.
As the day leads, it gets a little busier on the road. Sometimes I pass some other bikers. I notice that the don’t wave as often as we do at home. Back in Holland every biker waves to each other, which in some circumstances can be quite hard, if you’re running trough a trafficjam or so. But it doesn’t matter, you’ll find a way to let the otherone you’ve seem him. Everything is permitted. Even trowing your leg in the air.
I wonder why the don’t do it overhere and the I realise that we’re on the wrong side of the road to do it easely. We’re driving on the left side and people are passing you on your right side. Useally you stick your left hand up in the air, but thats less noticeble. You should wave with your right hand in this matter but you can’t because you have to keep the gas running with that one. When I get dissed for the tenth time in a row I stop doing it.

The last part from St Arnaud to Blenheim is a long straight road along a really width river, which is for most of the part a dry with milions of grey rocks strewn surface.
It is a little bit boring so I kill some time with counting dead animals.
I haven’t seen so much roadkill on a trip in my whole life as I did this morning. And I’m not only talking about the big fly’s splashing on my visor of my headlight, but about the dozens of hedgehogs, possums and rabbits, squashed by big wheels and makes it nothing left but just a messy ball of hair and blood.
As the vineyard a rising up beside me, I know i’m almost home. No sunshine in Blenheim neither.
Tired, cold, but satisfied I park my Guzzi in the garage. Walk around it, and think, 630 k’s later, she’s still up and running. Cool! And I get a shower. Hot!

Tim van Dalen

[Conquiztador]

Thanks for road trip story.

So what did you do re the importing in the end?

[timpel_800]

Hi, tnx!

The story of importing was that i'd go to custom, ask for a temporary import.

When i was due to get my bike trough his warrant, i found out that they had given me a normal entry. Then i had to get my bike vinned and stuff. So i called customs and asked why they had given the wrong entry because i asked for a temp. This was because of my working holiday visa.

I did not feel like this stupid braketest and the costs of the VIN thing, so asked if they could change the entry into a temp one. So they did and i had to pay a deposit of 268 bucks and that was it!

Only problem i had was with MAF. they did not find the bike clean enough. That costed me stupid money. So i learned from that one!